Letters to No One
by RadiantCupcake
Summary: This is a sequel to Letters at Hogwarts and The Summer of Missing Letters. Jasmine finally makes it to Hogwarts. Come follow her journey into the magical world.
1. Chapter 1

Jasmine was surprised to find a letter from Harry in their hiding spot. She had been resigned to wait until he returned to Hogwarts.

She eagerly ripped the envelope open and unfolded the parchment.

 _Dear Jasmine,_

 _I'm so sorry for not writing earlier but there was so much going on the whole time I didn't have any time but now I have loads to tell you._

 _As you probably know your parents locked me into my room and put bars on the window after the incident with the Masons. I was counting down the days till you were coming back._

 _I think it's time you heard my side of the story because there is so much that your parents don't know about._

 _So that evening when I walked into my room there was this weird creature sitting on my bed. It was small, maybe up to my waist, thin and wrinkly and wearing an old dish cloth. And he had huge green eyes and pointy ears and a really squeaky voice. I had no idea what it was._

 _Turns out this creature is a house elf and they serve old, wealthy wizarding families and his name is Dobby._

 _He had come to tell me not to go back to Hogwarts, mental right? Anyway he was going on and on about some evil plot that was going on and how something terrible would happen this year at Hogwarts._

Jasmine groaned loudly, that didn't sound good. Couldn't Harry just have a normal year at Hogwarts?

 _Fred and George just think that his owners were playing a prank and trying to stop me from going to Hogwarts. Ron and I think it was probably Malfoy's idea. His family is wealthy enough to own a house elf._

Jasmine wished that Harry had explained more about the house elves, what did he mean by owning an elf? And she was disappointed to have missed a visit from a magical creature. After all it wasn't everyday that a magical creature stopped by and she would never be able to see them at Hogwarts.

 _Anyways, then I found out that Dobby had been the one who had taken all my letters from Ron and Hermione to stop me from going back to Hogwarts. When that didn't work he tried to make me promise not to go back to Hogwarts but when I refused to promise he ran out of my room and downstairs._

Jasmine shook her head, typical of Harry to refuse to lie even if it was for a good cause.

 _I tried to chase and catch him but it was too late. He dropped your mum's pudding in the kitchen. Your dad tried to convince the Masons that I had some kind of mental disorder and he almost succeeded but then an owl from the ministry appeared and Mrs. Mason is terrified of birds so she ran out of the house screaming. [In other circumstances it might even have been funny.]_

 _Unfortunately, that was when your parents found out that I couldn't do any magic outside of Hogwarts and that ended with me locked in my room._

 _It was awful, I was literally counting down the minutes for you to come home but I got really lucky. One night, I woke up and Ron, Fred and George were outside my window in their flying car._

Jasmine's eyes widened, a flying car...

 _It was wicked, we flew all through the night and landed just as the sun was rising. The Burrow (that's what their house is called) is so cool. It looks like it's being held together by magic and inside there are all different levels and it's so full of magic._

 _When we got there Mrs Weasley came out and she was raging with the boys for taking the car. She was really nice to me though and told me that she and Mr. Weasley were actually going to come pick me up personally. She actually said that they were going to invite you too._

Jasmine smacked the side of the tree stump when she realised that she had missed out on what was probably her one chance at experiencing the magical world. Then again her parents wouldn't have let her go.

She sighed and turned back to the parchment.

 _As punishment the boys had to degnome the garden. Gnomes are little, potato-like creatures that live in holes in the ground. Mrs. Weasley wanted them out of the garden (the garden is huge by the way, loads of trees and plants, you would love it) so we had to spin them around in the air and then throw them over the hedge._

 _Before you get all worked up, this doesn't hurt them. They're actually already back in the garden._

 _I can't tell you how much I love it here. Everyone is so nice all the time. Mr. Weasley is obsessed with anything to do with Muggles so he makes me explain everything to him, Mrs. Weasley is the best cook ever and she makes huge portions. Percy spends most of the time holed up in his room and Ginny (the youngest sister) gets really embarrassed around me._

Jasmine smirked, it sounded like Harry had an admirer.

 _I spend most of my time with Ron, Fred and George. We fly and practice Quidditch during the day or we just hang out in the garden._

 _I'm still looking forward to Hogwarts but I will miss the Burrow. I really, really wish that you were here with us._

 _I had a bit of a mishap yesterday._

Jasmine closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

 _We went to Diagon Alley to buy our books and we used Floo powder. Basically, Floo powder is green powder and you throw it in the hearth (it doesn't matter if the fire is burning or not) and the fireplace is connected to a system and you can get out at any fireplace that is connected to that system._

Jasmine gasped, that was genius.

 _Yeah, it sounds good in theory but it's awful really. It's sooty, and you can't breathe and it's tight and squishy and I fell out in the wrong grate._

 _I ended up going one further than Diagon Alley, and it was a really creepy shop. I cracked my glasses and to make matters worse, Malfoy and his dad showed up._

She face-palmed, Harry had the worst luck.

 _So I hid in a cabinet and waited until they left. Thankfully Hagrid found me because it was a really scary street once I left the shop, some woman was trying to sell human nails to me._

Jasmine shuddered.

 _That street is called Knockturn Alley and it's a really dodgy area._

 _We met up with Hermione and her parents and we wandered around the shops for a while. It was good to see her again._

 _There was a huge crowd of people in Flourish & Blotts because Gilderoy Lockhart (he writes books and pretty much every witch fancies him, I've sent you a picture) was doing a book signing._

Jasmine sorted through the pieces of parchment and burst out laughing when she saw the picture of Harry and the wizard she assumed to be Lockhart. He had blond hair, dimples and was trying to drag Harry back into the picture. She skimmed over the article and couldn't stop laughing.

 _Jasmine it was so embarrassing! Once he spotted me, he pulled me over and then made me take pictures. Then he announced to everyone that he was our new DADA professor, oh Jasmine I don't know if I'll survive this year with him. He's an absolute git._

 _But then we ran into the Malfoys again and Mr. Weasley and Mr. Malfoy got into a fight, in the middle of the shop. Hagrid pulled them apart and Mrs. Weasley was furious._

 _That's pretty much it. We're leaving for Hogwarts in ten days._

 _I'll write to you again once we're back at school. I wish I could have seen you before I leave for another year._

Jasmine smiled sadly. She couldn't think about the fact that it would be another full year before she saw Harry because it brought tears to her eyes.

 _Lots of love, Harry._

 _xx_

Jasmine walked home slowly. Even though she was getting on better with Dudley at the moment, she just wanted to see Harry and not her family.

She excused herself to her room and lay on her bed, leafing through a book but not really paying attention.

She ignored the doorbell when it rang. It was probably one of Dudley's friends. Her head snapped up when she heard her father's strangled yelp.


	2. Chapter 2

Jasmine went downstairs to investigate the source of her father's distress. He usually only sounded like that when he was dealt with Harry.

Suddenly she rushed down the stairs, what if...but to her disappointment it wasn't Harry standing in the hallway, in fact nobody was. She followed the voices into the sitting room and froze when she spotted the stranger sitting on the sofa.

Dark eyes bore into hers and she averted her gaze as his narrowed into a glare.

"Come in and sit down," her mother ordered. She sat down on the only available seat at the other end of the sofa.

"What, what is it?" Jasmine paled suddenly, "is it Harry? Is he ok?"

The grim expressions weren't reassuring.

"I have nothing to do with Potter," sneered Snape and Jasmine felt her heart rate return to normal before it went up a notch again. If it wasn't anything to do with Harry then why was Snape in her sitting room. There was no doubt in her mind that the man sitting on her sofa was Severus Snape.

"I'm here to deliver this, seeing as there were some complications last year!"

Snape held out a thick envelope that bore the Hogwarts crest on its back. He shook it impatiently when Jasmine failed to move. If anyone noticed her trembling hand when she reached out to take it, nobody mentioned it.

She didn't look up as she opened it. She could not bear to see the look on her mother's face or the disdain that would surely be in her father's eyes. The room was silent as she unfurled the parchment.

Snape watched the Dursleys as Jasmine read her letter, her brow furrowed in concentration. Her parents were both looking anywhere but at her or at him. The harsh words spoken before Jasmine had entered the room hung in the air. After realising who he was and that this wasn't in connection to their nephew, Vernon and Petunia had tried to throw him out and told him in no uncertain terms that their daughter would not be attending Hogwarts or become a witch. It had only taken a few sentences on Snape's behalf and an explanation of an Obscurial before they had grudgingly ushered him into the house and called their daughter downstairs.

Snape sighed loudly, he just wanted to get today over with and not be involved in any family drama. It was moments like these that made him glad that it was only him.

"I will be taking you to pick up your school supplies today," he said into the silence and her head shot up, her eyes darting over to her parents who were still studiously ignoring her.

She cleared her throat and he glared into space knowing exactly why she had hesitated.

"Miss Dursley, I can assure you that I am not any more thrilled about this than you are. However, Professor Dumbledore has assigned me to get your supplies thus that is what we will do now. No dawdling."

Jasmine nodded mutely and with one last pleading look to her parents left the room to get ready. Her mind was swirling with one thought after the other all of them fighting for dominance.

"We will not be paying for this nonsense," Vernon ground out between his teeth as he watched his daughter leave the room. With every step she was one step further out of his reach.

"There will be no need, there is a fund for less fortunate students," Snape said, his face pulled into an expression of distaste.

Vernon bristled at the term but didn't say another word, he was only partially aware of Petunia who was leaning into him, trying to hide her soundless tears. This was even worse that when Lily had left her to go to that horrid place.

"It's a lie, you're trying to steal my child," she had whispered near hysterically when Snape had first announced the news.

He had assured her coldly that indeed it was the truth. She had fruitlessly argued that Jasmine had never shown any signs of magic, not like Harry. Snape had shrugged and responded that some children of Muggles didn't show signs of magic. It wasn't highly unusual or a sign of lesser magic.

From that moment on Petunia's eyes had glazed over and Snape had the feeling that nothing else had gotten through to her until she heard him opening the door.

He was already out on the front step, Jasmine frozen in the doorway when Petunia suddenly lunged into the hallway. Snape didn't miss Jasmine's hopeful expression which gave way to disappointment when all Petunia did was breathe heavily into the silence.

"Mum?" Jasmine's voice came out so shaky she hardly recognised it herself.

Petunia's eyes focused, then hardened and she turned back into the sitting room without another glance.

Snape heard Jasmine's breath catch.

"Come on," he ordered brusquely and with brisk steps walked down the path to the local park from where they could apparate to Diagon Alley.

He hadn't been happy at the prospect of having to side-along-apparate with Jasmine but the alternative was to make the long journey to London the Muggle way. He decided that this moment of discomfort was better than extending the torture.

He didn't look back to see if Jasmine was still following him.

Jasmine was still trailing after Snape, in a daze. She was almost glad that he was completely ignoring her so that she could get herself under control. The last thing she wanted to do was burst into tears under his stern eyes and with every deep breath she took she was fighting back the urge a little more. So she focused on her breathing, trying to push everything else out, calling the words of her dance teacher to mind, to focus on one thing and let everything else fall away. By the time she had followed Snape into the park and behind some tall bushes, the lump in her throat had shrunk and the tears weren't threatening to spill immediately.

"We're going to apparate to Diagon Alley now," Snape said and held out his arm, "I suggest you hold on and don't let go until we land unless you want to leave a part of you behind." He said the last bit with a nasty smile and Jasmine grabbed onto his sleeve. Before she could ask what it meant to apparate, the world lurched under her feet.

She wasn't in any way prepared for the shock of being transported to another place by magic. It felt like all the oxygen in her body was sucked out and she was being squeezed through a tight tube. Despite all warnings she found her grip loosening but a strong warm hand gripped hers and made sure it stayed in place.

They landed with a thump and Jasmine sprawled on the ground dry heaving. Her day had definitely not turned out the way she had imagined.

Snape did feel a brief moment of pity as he watched since his first experience with apparition had also not been the most pleasant.

"I told you to hold on," he scolded but his tone lacked its usual bite not that Jasmine noticed. She looked at him incredulous and with a fire ignited in her eyes.

"Some warning would have been nice," she snapped and he wanted to pinch the bridge of his nose. Up until then he had hoped that she wasn't quite as awful as her cousin.

"Watch your tone," he hissed and raised his eyebrow pointedly.

She huffed and got up off the ground brushing her clothes off. Now that her stomach had settled into a semblance of normal she was able to take in her surroundings. So far it wasn't as impressive as Harry had described.

"Follow me." It was only when he turned and his robe swished around with him that Jasmine noticed he was in wizard's garb. She could see why Harry hated him now, he was a heartless git.

However, she did follow him because she didn't really have any other choice. For a brief moment she hoped that maybe she'd see Harry but then tampered it down. The odds were slim and the more she thought about it she realised that she didn't want to see her cousin just then as she didn't want to hear what he would have to say about her family.

As they rounded the corner Jasmine froze forgetting all her worries for a moment. It was truly a sight to behold.

She was only propelled into motion again once Snape beckoned her impatiently and she followed him once more, eagerly trying to see everything going on around her which was nigh on impossible.

They stopped outside a shop called "Madam Malkin's" and Jasmine knew from Harry's letters that this was where she would get her robes.


	3. Chapter 3

"She needs the standard set of robes for first year," Snape said. Madam Malkin who had just been rearranging some shelves turned to face them.

She eyed him for a moment and then turned her attention to the girl standing next to him. Even if she hadn't known Snape and that he didn't have any family, it couldn't be a relation of his, they were opposites in almost all ways. Him, dark and brooding, her light and wonder in her eyes.

"What's your name dearie?" she asked kindly and now the young with smiled at her brightly.

"Jasmine," she said and Madam Malkin smiled back at her.

"Now up you pop here and we'll get you measured in no time."

Jasmine watched in fascination as Madam Malkin directed all the supplies she needed with her wand and as the robes arranged themselves around her she felt a rush of warmth, of static. She closed her eyes for a moment basking in her first experience of magic.

Snape sat and looked out the shop window and Madam Malkin chatted with Jasmine coaxing more and more smiles out of her. It seemed that for now Jasmine had forgotten about what awaited her at home. Once the robes had been fitted Snape paid and shrunk the bags down to pocket size ignoring Jasmine's wide eyes at another display of magic.

He nodded at Madam Malkin and then they left the shop.

"Potion supplies next," he said leading her next door. At least she would have the correct supplies under his supervision. Not like some idiots who turned up with brass cauldrons. He shook his head at their idiocy and immediately zeroed in on the standard pewter cauldrons they'd need. He picked it up and led Jasmine over to the vials. He motioned at her to pick up a set and then they also picked up the weighing scales she needed.

Jasmine wanted to ask so many questions but she could see that it wouldn't go over well, so she bit her tongue and tried to see as much as she could. Who knew when she would be able to visit here again. Not for the first time did she wish she had Hagrid with her instead of Snape as Harry's trip had sounded a lot more fun.

As she watched him pay again a thought suddenly struck her and she knew she couldn't keep quiet anymore.

Snape could see that she was on the brink of talking several times before hesitating again. He sighed internally.

"Out with it!"

"Huh?" Jasmine startled and looked at him with wide eyes.

"Huh, is never an appropriate response," he scolded, "you either say pardon or excuse me. I said that you were to say whatever it is you want to say. It's painful watching you think."

He watched her huff and glare at her feet before she raised her eyes again.

"Did my parents give you money to pay for Hogwarts?"

"No," he said curtly.

"Then how...how…" she stuttered, her cheeks starting to tinge pink.

"Your aunt and uncle left a fund if you or your brother had turned out to be magic."

"Oh!" Jasmine was quiet again as she fell into step with him. For the first time in her life she felt a connection to her aunt and uncle and felt deeply thankful for their foresight and care. Harry would be over the moon to hear another story, and one so positive, about his beloved parents.

Stepping into the apothecary was like stepping into another world. A creepy yet fascinating other world. Snape had left her with a brusque "don't touch anything!" at the door and gone up to the counter to greet the shopkeeper and start to barter with him. Jasmine glad to have some time for herself wandered around through the shelves reading all the labels. She didn't recognise more than half of all the ingredients and was suddenly overcome with the desire to study and learn all about the magical world. For a moment this desire of knowing the unknown became so strong that she even forgot about her family. She tried to soak in all of the names of plants and creatures and could have easily spent another hour in the shop by the time Snape found her and brought her outside.

She looked longingly at the display of Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour but Snape never slowed as he strode to their next destination.

Jasmine soon forgot all about ice cream once they entered Flourish and Blotts.

Snape watched in bemusement as Jasmine's eyes got bigger and bigger and she veered off as if pulled by an invisible string. He watched for a moment as walked past the books, her fingers grazing the spines as she lightly tilted her head to read them.

He cleared his throat loudly and nothing.

"Miss Dursley!"

His quiet teaching voice cut through to whatever world she had been in and she flinched before turning back to him.

"I don't have any time to waste, now come with me and we will pick up your books," he ordered and she followed him wordlessly.

She honestly felt like crying again a little bit, why couldn't she just have five minutes to browse. Then again it's not like she had any money to spend anyway. Her aunt and uncle had left enough to buy school supplies but that was it. There was a large poster of a man with curly blonde hair and bright blue eyes standing next to the till. Jasmine was transfixed by the sight of him moving around, posing and tossing his hair back. "Lockhart, isn't he the one who wrote all the books on the list?" she said connecting the name on the poster.

"Yes, he's also your professor this year," Snape said, wanting to punch something. Mainly Gilderoy Lockhart himself, how had Dumbledore ever thought that it would be a good idea to have him teach.

"Really?" Jasmine looked sufficiently skeptical that Snape's mood brightened infinitesimally.

"Defence against the dark arts."

"Huh…" she stared at the poster again and jerked back when Lockhart gave a jaunty wink and bowed deeply.

Snape gave a sigh of relief once they left the bookshop and Lockhart behind. Now there was only the wand left on their list.

Although he would never admit it, he was actually quite looking forward to the next part as wand lore and wand magic had always fascinated him and he had read many books on the topic.

He felt Jasmine shiver as the magic of Ollivander's and the hundreds of wands stored there washed over them.

The old man hadn't changed a bit and he smirked when he saw the disconcerted look Jasmine threw him after introductions had been made.

Ollivander on his part looked delighted to have a new customer and disappeared behind the shelves. They could hear him muttering and various exclamations and Jasmine felt herself starting to get nervous. What if nothing happened, what if it turned out that she wasn't magic after all. She had never had outbursts like Harry, what if her magic wasn't strong enough to choose a wand?

Before she could get lost in her thoughts Ollivander reappeared with a pile of dusty boxes in his arms.

The first three wands didn't do anything and were quickly snatched back by Ollivander, the fourth one caused a surge of power to rush through her and made the lights explode.

"No not that one," Mr. Ollivander said but he looked delighted at the reaction. The next six wands caused varying degrees of destruction and mayhem. She briefly turned all of Ollivanders robes a violent shade of flamingo pink, she singed one of her eyebrows, and caused several of the neatly stacked boxes to fly out of their shelves, scattering on the floor.

Mr. Ollivander kept clapping his hands together whenever something else happened and when the eleventh wand set fire to his counter he knocked his knuckles against it twice and the fire extinguished immediately leaving behind an impressive scorch mark.

"I know just what you need, don't move."

He disappeared into the back once more and Jasmine took his instructions to heart not moving even a muscle because she was rather worried about what else her magic would do.

Snape for his part was greatly amused by the spectacle and he could almost forgive Dumbledore for sending him here with Dursley just for seeing Ollivander in bright pink robes.

Ollivander shuffled out of the backroom with another three boxes.

"Try this one," he handed her a wand and she felt warmth rush through her arm, white and gold sparks flying from the tip of the wand. Her face broke into a smile reaching from ear to ear.

"We have a winner it seems," Mr. Ollivander said and Snape stood up brushing off his robes.

"Very interesting," murmured Ollivander as he carefully placed the wand back into the box and shut it gently.

"Acacia, 9 inches, dragon heartstring, nice and supple," he said in response to her questioning look.

"A rare wand wood, is it not?" commented Snape.

"It rather is. However, as it is one of the most loyals woods it will serve you well, my dear."


	4. Chapter 4

Jasmine was still so excited about her wand that she didn't feel too upset when they walked past Eeylops Owl Emporium and didn't go in. She knew that Harry would always lend Hedwig to her if the need arose even though she would love to have her own pet at Hogwarts.

Before she knew it they were back at the apparition point and Snape held out his arm to her. She grudgingly reached out for his sleeve wanting in no way to repeat the experience but realising that it was inevitable.

She still sprawled on the ground but at least there was no dry heaving this time.

"Ugh, do all wizards travel like this?" she grumbled as she got back on her feet.

"Yes. You will have lessons when you come of age," Snape said.

They walked in silence for the rest of the way back to Number 4, Privet Drive even though Jasmine had a hundred questions burning on her tongue.

"A member of staff will pick you up at 10.15 am sharp on the 1st of September to escort you to the Hogwarts Express, it has already been agreed upon by your parents."

Jasmine nodded mutely, she heard the chain being pulled and moments later her mother appeared in the doorway.

Petunia walked back to the kitchen and Snape walked into the hallway depositing all of Jasmine's supplies and resizing them to their original size.

"Make sure you are ready on the first," he said and swept out the door.

Her quiet "yes, sir" went unheard.

It took four trips upstairs to carry all of her new things to her room. She had just emptied the books onto her bed when her mother called her for dinner.

Dinner was a subdued affair. Nobody made direct eye contact with her and no one tried to make any conversation either. Jasmine ate as quickly as she could, never before had she so keenly understood Harry's desire to get away from her family.

She had been a little worried that her parents would try to lock her in like Harry but it seemed they were content to just pretend that she didn't exist.

"I don't have to tell you that you must not mention this to anyone. Ever!" Vernon said once everyone had cleared their plates.

"Yes, dad," Jasmine said, she put her plate in the dishwasher and escaped upstairs to her room. She turned on the light and spread out all her school supplies so she could study them closely now that she had time.

The tears didn't come until much later when she was cocooned in her blankets and the lights were off.

For the first time in her memory her mother hadn't come in to say goodnight before she went to bed.

She spent most of the remaining days at Sarah's house. Her parents had told the Waldons that Jasmine had received a scholarship to a prestigious academy in Scotland. Sarah had initially been gutted but now she was trying her best to cheer up Jasmine because she could see that she was upset even when she pretended that everything was fine.

Jasmine was internally dying at not being able to tell Sarah about Hogwarts. It was so hard to keep up the pretence of the fancy academy. The days passed slowly and the first of September inched nearer.

Jasmine was happy that she would be able to see Harry again soon and that she'd leave the stifling atmosphere of Privet Drive. Perhaps with some distance her parents would realise that she was still their daughter and everything would be alright again. At least that's what Jasmine told herself as she lay awake at night watching the shadows dance across the ceiling.


	5. Chapter 5

"No, absolutely not Headmaster," Snape said, glaring at Dumbledore.

"I'm afraid that this is the only option we have. Hagrid has other duties and Minerva is also running last minute errands."

"What about all our other members of staff?" Snape asked incredulously. How was this being pawned off on him?

"Besides, Miss Dursley is familiar with you now. And Severus it is only a matter of a half hour to escort young Jasmine to the train. You know that we cannot entrust her parents to do this."

Snape held back a groan and said, "fine."

Without another word he swept back to the dungeons and his quarters which held no nasty surprises for him.

Jasmine triple checked her trunk at ten on the first of September. The house was distractingly silent as her family had left early in the morning to attend a football match that Dudley wanted to go and see.

Their goodbyes had been brief. Jasmine had thrown herself into Petunia's arms who had automatically caught her and embraced her back. Vernon had gruffly patted her head and Dudley had squeaked, "bye" before scuttling into the car.

Now all that was left to do was wait for the doorbell. Jasmine hoped Hagrid would be the one to pick her up. She was dying to meet him after everything Harry had told her.

"Professor Snape!" they both heard the surprise in her voice and he scowled.

"I hope you're ready, I have a lots to do without escorting you to London."

Jasmine gestured at the trunk in the hallway and watched as he shrunk it and then locked the door once they were out. She slipped her key through the letterbox.

They walked in silence to the park and although Jasmine knew what to expect she felt her stomach cramping at the thought of apparating again.

"Do you have your ticket?" Snape asked.

She patted her backpack and he nodded before holding his arm out once again.

Jasmine managed to land on her feet and after a few staggering steps she was steady and feeling rather proud of herself.

The next step was the concrete barrier between platforms nine and ten.

Noting her hesitance, Snape said, "do not stop walking. It will draw attention from the Muggles."

He walked two steps behind her, she was sure that he would just shove her through if she did stop.

Luckily that wasn't needed and she found herself on Platform 9¾ and staring at the gleaming red steam engine. The clock read only 10:18 and there were only a few families scattered on the platform.

Snape was thankful that it was still so early. He had no desire to be seen with one of his students, which would undoubtedly start the rumour mill.

He spotted an empty compartment and boarded the train. Once inside he resized Jasmine's trunk and levered it onto the luggage rack.

"Now, I must be off. I'd advise you to remain in this compartment unless you want to spend the first two weeks in detention with me." With one last meaningful look he left Jasmine to her fate and left the platform as quickly as he'd come.

Jasmine was too busy watching the families on the platform to be annoyed by what Snape had said. The closer the clock's hand inched towards 11 the busier the platform got and Jasmine was glued to the window in hopes of catching sight of Harry.

The door opened and she spun around to find a girl with long blonde hair about the same age as her.

"Hi, do you mind if I share with you? All the other compartments are infested with Nargles."

"Sure! What are Nargles?"

The young girl introduced herself as Luna Lovegood and Jasmine immediately liked her. She forgot all about the window as they were soon in deep conversation about various magical creatures Luna knew about and Jasmine had never heard of before.

Several other students passed the compartment but nobody bothered them until the lady with the trolley came around to sell sweets.

Both Jasmine and Luna had packed lunches so they politely declined and returned to their conversation.

"I don't know what house I'll be in," Jasmine said as she chewed on her ham sandwich.

"My cousin is in Gryffindor so I'd like to be in it as well."

Luna nodded, "I think I might be in Ravenclaw as both my parents were Ravenclaws."

"I think after Gryffindor, I'd like to be a Ravenclaw," Jasmine agreed and Luna only nodded happily. It would be nice if they were in the same house.

On her way to the loo, Jasmine peeked into the other compartments hoping to catch sight of Harry.

She wasn't the only person searching for Harry on the train. Both the twins and Hermione were searching for Harry and Ron. Hermione because she wanted to see them and Fred and George because they needed to retrieve several contraband items in their trunks which they had hidden there. Molly always checked their trunks but was rather lax about the others.

"Fred, George wait up." The twins turned to see their little brother's best-friend rush towards them after they had departed the train and she spotted them in the crowd.

"Do you know where Ron and Harry are? I searched the whole train?" her voice was tinged with desperation.

"Aren't they with you? We've been looking for them as well," George shrugged and nudged Hermione to get into the horseless carriage.

"Lee over here," Fred called to their friend who had gotten separated in the swarm of students.

"I'm sure they're around somewhere and you kept missing each other," Fred said and Hermione nodded.

They crowded into the Entrance Hall and then through to the Great Hall which was decorated with the customary house colours. The tables were set and waiting to serve the feast.

Even now they couldn't spot Harry or Ron anywhere but then their attention was grabbed by the incoming first years.

"There's Ginny look," Fred elbowed George and they both waved at their little sister who was able to force a smile through her nerves.

The first names were called and the twins watched absently, it wasn't until the name "Jasmine Dursley," was called that they paid attention.

Fred and George looked at each other. It surely couldn't be? But it was the same girl as on Harry's photographs who walked up to Professor McGonagall and the Sorting Hat.


	6. Chapter 6

Jasmine was deeply surprised that her limbs still functioned as she walked up to the Sorting Hat because it felt like her insides had turned liquid and she was just a puddle on the floor. She was used to dancing in front of crowds but that was inherently different. She kept her head up but didn't look out into the sea of faces. While seeing Harry might be reassuring having to search for him definitely wouldn't be. She gave a shaky smile as she put on the hat and then everything turned black in front of her eyes.

"Interesting, very interesting…" the Hat murmured and her nerves spiked.

"What does that mean?" she wondered.

The hat didn't reply and beyond hmmms and huhhhs it didn't say anymore to her. She felt time stretch out and started to worry that maybe she would get sent home because she didn't belong at Hogwarts.

The hat chuckled in response, "no, I can assure you my dear, that you certainly belong at Hogwarts."

Feeling slightly appeased Jasmine let the tension out of her shoulders bleed out and it was only a another few seconds before the hat shouted: "GRYFFINDOR!"

"Thank you," whispered Jasmine and heard it chuckle as she took it off and headed to the cheering Gryffindor table. Her attention was drawn to two identical ginger boys who were waving wildly at her; these were undoubtedly the Weasley twins. She slipped into a seat next to them and felt for the first time since she had departed the train that she could breathe properly.

"You almost were a Hatstall," George said once he and Fred had introduced themselves.

"A what?"

"A Hatstall, it's when the sorting takes longer that 5 minutes because you may be suitable for more than one house."

"How long did it take?" Jasmine asked.

"It was well over four minutes, even the teachers were getting curious. Hatstalls are rare. Last year Neville and Hermione were almost Hatstalls like you." Fred said and sat up straighter as Ginny's name was called.

"C'mon Ginny," he hollered and Ginny blushed beet red.

Ginny sat on the other side of the twins and she and Jasmine were introduced.

It wasn't long before Dumbledore said a few words and then the tables filled with more food than Jasmine had ever seen in one place.

"I wonder where Harry is," she said and the twins told her how they had looked all over for Harry and Ron on the train.

"Do you think something happened to them?" she asked her stomach twisting itself in knots.

"No, I reckon they might have missed the train because we were running late and now mum and dad have to figure out how to get them here."

"Can they not just apparate them?" Jasmine asked.

"How do you know about apparition?" Fred was flabbergasted.

"Snape brought me to Diagon Alley to get my supplies," replied Jasmine and Fred dropped his fork into his mashed potato covered with gravy.

"Shit," he cursed and fished it out.

"He what now?" George asked, his mouth hanging open.

"Snape brought me to Diagon Alley to pick up my school supplies since my parents couldn't."

George looked up at the teacher's table but Snape and McGonagall had disappeared.

Fred suddenly grabbed Jasmine's hand and shook it with a sombre look on his face, "you have my most sincere sympathies for having to spend even a second in that greasy bat's company."

Jasmine laughed, "I don't think he was happy about it either."

"Snape's always miserable," George shrugged, "but seriously, why didn't Dumbledore just write to mum and dad. They would have brought you along in a heartbeat."

Jasmine's heart jumped at the idea of the Weasleys taking her, it would certainly have been a different experience.

"Yeah, definitely. Next year we'll take you and Harry along when we're shopping for supplies." Fred was wiping his fork on his napkin and Ginny nodded shyly in agreement.

Jasmine's eyes were growing heavy towards the end of the meal but she sang along to the school hymn and laughed till her sides ached as the Weasley twins sang it opera style.

She waved at Luna, who had been sorted into Ravenclaw, as she was lead out of the Great Hall by their prefect with the other first years. She tried to remember all the turns and stairs they took but resigned to herself after the fifth set of moving stairs that she would be lost for the first few weeks.

"Wattlebird," the prefect said loud enough for all the first years to hear and then they were in the common room and Jasmine felt at home immediately; the cosy crackling fire, the soft, plush armchairs scattered around the room. The room filled with more and more students who were all talking about one thing.

"Did you hear that Harry Potter and Ron Weasley flew to Hogwarts in a flying car and crashed into the Whomping Willow. They were spotted by at least 6 Muggles.

Jasmine facepalmed when she heard. Of bloody course Harry had travelled here in a contraband car. Her cousin could never take the easy route.

Her tiredness was wiped in an instant as she wanted to see Harry before she went to sleep.

Harry was bone-tired as he trudged up the stairs to Gryffindor tower. He wondered what Jasmine would have to say about his latest adventure. It wasn't that Jasmine was an angel, it was just that she was better at not being caught.

Sometimes a bit Slytherin, he snickered at the thought and Ron threw him an inquisitive look but Harry shook his head.

"Just wondering what Jasmine will have to say about the flying incident."

"You won't have to wait long," came a voice out of the darkness causing Harry and Ron to jump a foot in the air.

"Fred, George," Ron shouted starting to thump them but Harry froze.

"What did you say?" he said but the twins just winked at him before gesturing to the portrait hole.

Harry clambered in and was enveloped by a crowd of cheering Gryffindors but his eyes roamed until he spotted her. Jasmine raised an eyebrow and Harry laughed.

"Sorry, excuse me," he wrangled his way through and engulfed her in a hug.

Jasmine felt like she was laughing and crying at the same time.

"Come on upstairs, Percy's coming this way," Ron hissed and Harry dragged Jasmine up the staircase.

"You're here, at Hogwarts. You're a witch!" Harry's eyes were huge and he kept repeating himself.

Ron and Jasmine shared a grin and Ron gestured for Jasmine to sit down. Harry made Jasmine tell him everything and was appalled when he heard that Snape had brought her shopping.

"I hate him," he muttered darkly and Ron nodded. Soon the other boys came in and Harry introduced his cousin before he and Ron regaled their car adventure to an enthusiastic audience. Afterwards, Jasmine went to her dorm and was subjected to a lot of stares and whispers because now everyone knew that she was Harry's cousin.

The other girls in her dorm were already asleep when she came in. Fortunately there was enough moonlight coming in that she could find her pyjamas and she brushed her teeth in the adjoining bathroom before falling into bed. It was soft and comfortable and she only had one fleeting thought of her family before sleep carried her off.


	7. Chapter 7

The following morning passed in a blur of strange, staring faces and loud whispers as she went down to the Great Hall with Harry and Ron. Apparently Hermione hadn't forgiven them for the flying car stunt yet.

She was wide awake and would have liked to spend several hours examining all the paintings of Hogwarts. The fact that they could talk and move around the castle was enough to make her head spin. She was officially introduced to everyone they met along the way by Harry.

Harry honestly couldn't be happier on the first day of his second year at Hogwarts. He had missed Jasmine so much last year and now she was here as well and it seemed as though life couldn't get any better. He changed his mind pretty quickly when the Howler exploded and Mrs. Weasley's voice broke into the Great Hall. Jasmine the traitor was smirking but was soon distracted by her timetable which was handed out by Professor McGonagall. Hermione was talking a mile a minute about all the subjects, the teachers and tips for each one. Jasmine was listening earnestly, Harry could tell that she was nervous and he remembered how scared he had been on his first day.

"You'll be fine," he assured her, "we'll see you at lunch."

Jasmine looked around for Luna and spotted her eating alone at one end of the Ravenclaw table. She got up and brought her toast with her to sit down opposite Luna.

"Morning Luna."

Luna looked up and smiled brightly to see her friend there, she hadn't had much luck befriending the other girls in Ravenclaw.

"Did you see that we have Potions together this morning?" Jasmine asked, she was so happy that she had a lot of her classes with Luna.

They asked a passing prefect for directions to the potions classroom and managed to find it without getting lost. Jasmine had been worried that Luna might treat her differently now that she had found out about Harry being her cousin but Luna hadn't even mentioned it beyond pointing out that Harry had an infinity for attracting Two-Tailed Bog Spirits. Jasmine had grinned and agreed. She hadn't told anyone but she was worried about Potions, what if Snape was out to make her life hell because she was related to Harry.

Her fears were quickly assuaged as he ignored her completely. The first class was an introduction to the subject, the classroom rules: which were basically "Do as I say, or suffer detention", and basic potion ingredients. She left the lesson feeling dazed and with a pile of homework. Luna's face was also blank and it took her several attempts to fit her books and supplies into her book bag.

"That was intense," she said as they walked out and Jasmine could only nod in agreement.

Their next class after morning break was Herbology and Jasmine couldn't wait to spend some time outside.

They weren't actually outside but in Greenhouse 1 and Professor Sprout showed them around, then they were allowed to repot Fluxweed plants. They also learned that Fluxweed had many uses in Potions.

The lesson flew by and Professor Sprout didn't give them any homework on the first day. The two girls had break together, Jasmine had looked for Ginny to ask her to join them but she had disappeared.

After lunch Jasmine was on her way to Charms, this time Gryffindor would be sharing the class with Hufflepuff.

Charms was uneventful but Jasmine loved it from the very first second. There was something so playful and fun about it and Professor Flitwick was so nice.

In Transfiguration they were meant to change a match into a needle which was easier said than done. Nobody managed to do it, some managed to turn it silver and others managed that it had a light glint of silver, Jasmine was among those. They were meant to practise the spell for homework and Professor McGonagall said she wanted to see progress.

Then the first day was already over and Jasmine met with Harry for dinner in the Great Hall. Her mind was swimming from all the new information and she told Harry, Ron and Hermione all about her day. Hermione was listening with rapt attention, she loved talking about lessons and she rarely got to with Harry and Ron because they didn't share that passion.

Once dinner was eaten Luna and Jasmine met up in the Entrance Hall because they wanted to go to the library to get started on their homework. Ginny had disappeared again.

"Can I get your picture too?"

Jasmine spun around and was blinded by a flash. One of the boys in her class had just taken a picture of her.

"Ehm, what?" she asked.

"I'm Colin Creevey, I'm a first year Gryffindor too," Colin introduced himself helpfully.

"I know who you are, why do you want picture?" Jasmine was still confused. Colin beamed when she had said she knew who he was.

"You're Harry Potter's cousin aren't you? I know all about Harry and I want to send moving photographs home to my family. My dad's a milkman, you know?"

Jasmine had listened with a bemused smile and now she looked up in relief when Luna appeared.

"My dad sells drills," she said for lack of anything else to say.

Colin nodded enthusiastically, gave her a thumbs up and scurried off.

On their way to the library the girls stopped to chat with several paintings because duh moving paintings. The paintings were rather flattered by their attention as mostly students became immune to them and went about their daily lives.

They also got lost on the moving staircases, coming across a dreadful grumpy friar painting several times who ignored their delighted giggles. After almost an hour of wandering around they caught their first glimpse of Mrs. Norris who eyed them distrustfully. She ignored their, "here kitty kitty," and just walked away.

"She's probably just really misunderstood by everyone here," Luna said sagely and Jasmine couldn't help but agree.

"Maybe we should get cat treats and befriend her?" she suggested and Luna nodded eagerly.

"I'll write to my friend Sarah to send us some," Jasmine said.

"And I'll ask dad to send me some. We have some at home for the strays we feed."

By the time they reached the library they only had an hour left before they had to return to their common rooms before curfew. However in that hour of practise, Jasmine had managed to make her match silver and slightly thinner.

Her plan to write to Sarah was delayed when she ran into Neville in the common room. He was sitting alone at one of the tables with his books spread around him.

"Hi Neville, do you mind if I sit here?" Jasmine gestured at one of the empty spots and Neville immediately pushed some of his books aside and gave her a watery smile.

"Are you alright?" Jasmine asked worried. It was only the first day and he looked so defeated.

Neville then told her all about the incident with the pixies and Jasmine listened intently. She managed to cheer him up by telling him how she had gotten her leg stuck in a staircase on the way to the library and it had taken Luna and a passing fifth year to pull her out.

"I know which one you mean, I got my leg stuck in it at least once a week for the first term," he said knowingly.

"If you like I can show you the quickest and safest routes to the common areas, Luna can come too," he offered and Jasmine was quick to accept. Then he turned back to his homework with a sigh and Jasmine went up to her dorm to retrieve her Muggle writing supplies because Sarah would die laughing if she sent her parchment or if she could see Jasmine writing with a quill.

 _Dear Sarah,_

 _How are you? I'm good but I miss you so much. It's so weird being so far away from home. I'm sitting in the common room and have survived my first day. The lessons are all really difficult and I know I'll have to work hard to keep up. Most of the teachers so far have been really nice though, so there's that. How was the first day of secondary school? What are the teachers like? Have you made any new friends? I actually met a really nice girl on the train on the way to school. Her name is Luna and she's so funny and she loves animal just as much as I do. She even said she wants to try some ballet so this weekend I'm going to try to teach her some moves. Anyway, other than that I don't have much news. I actually have a huge favour to ask you: could you please send us some cat treats because the caretaker here owns a cat and Luna and I want to befriend it. You know how mum gets about animals._

 _Wish I could just call over and hang out with you._

 _Missing you loads._

 _Love Jaz xx_

Then while she still had the nerve she started another letter.

 _Dear Mum, Dad and Dudley,_

 _How are you all doing? I hope that you are well. I arrived yesterday and had my first day of lessons today. Everything is going well so far. I'm missing you all very much._

 _Hope to hear from you soon._

 _Love Jasmine xx_

She put both of them into envelopes and addressed them before slipping them into her book bag. With a sigh she took out her potions homework and started on the homework Snape had given them. It wasn't so bad. They had to write out the first fifteen of the most common ingredients with their properties from the list he had given them and learn them off by heart. They were also supposed to learn the ingredients and methods for a the potion they would be brewing on Friday; a cure for boils. She genuinely enjoyed studying and learning new things therefore it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Once she was done with Potions she felt utterly exhausted and with a glance at the clock she realised it was already half-past ten and the common room had emptied considerably.

"I'm going to bed," she said to Neville who was still hunched over his books, "good night."

"Good night," he replied and this time his smile was more genuine. She yawned and looked around for Harry. She spotted him sitting by the fire with Ron and Hermione, she caught his eye and gave him a quick wave and put her hand up to her ear, tilting her head. He grinned and gave her a thumbs up. For the second evening in a row Jasmine got ready in the dark among her sleeping classmates and fell into bed.

"Hermione, how do you send letters to your parents? Do you use an owl or is there a way for letters to be sent to the Muggle world?" Jasmine asked the next morning, as she buttered a slice of toast.

"I send them by owl but there is Muggle postage system," Hermione explained, "it's actually quite simple. Just put their address on the envelope and then put it in the post box by the Owlery and it will get sorted and delivered to whoever it is.

"That's wicked." Jasmine was very relieved. She knew her parents would have a heart attack if an owl arrived at breakfast. "What about if my Muggle friend wants to reply to me, can she send it by regular post?"

"Yeah, there's a generic postal code that gets scanned by the post and it gets automatically delivered to Hogwarts," Lee Jordan chimed in, "that's how Alicia does it!" He added at their questioning looks.

"Well that makes everything very easy," Jasmine said satisfied. She pulled out her letter to Sarah and added in the return address and then excused herself from the table. She and Luna had decided to leave for their classes as early as possible so that they could get lost on the way and still get there on time.

The first class that morning was Defence Against the Dark Arts and after hearing Neville's story yesterday evening and Harry and Ron's scathing account at lunch she didn't have high hopes.


	8. Chapter 8

"Now my dear, dear first years, do not be afraid, for I am here to teach you everything I know. Well," Lockhart chuckles, "as much as you can learn, for I know a lot."

Luna and Jasmine exchanged a look and Jasmine bit her lip to contain her giggles. Luna cleared her throat loudly to cover her snort.

Lockhart went on to rhapsodise about his achievements for another twenty minutes before he handed them the test, telling them that he had no high expectations. Jasmine had read most of the books on her booklist in her last weeks at home but she had skipped mostly through Lockhart's as they were very flowery. She needn't have worried as all the questions pertained to Lockhart and not dark creatures.

They handed up their tests and left to go to History of Magic which while boring Jasmine found more tolerable than Gilderoy Lockhart's class.

Jasmine spent lunch with Luna but then went to the library alone afterwards as Luna had Charms and Jasmine didn't have class again until that night. Astronomy was the only class that she would share with the Ravenclaws that year.

She got a warning from Madam Pince when she whooped out loud. She had finally managed to turn her match into a passable looking needle. After that, and having completed her History homework she wandered around the shelves reading the spines of the books and basking in the knowledge that all these books were at her fingertips for the next seven years. She stopped when she came to the "Magical Beasts" section and browsed through the titles, her finger tracing over the books. She stopped when she read 'Fantastic Beasts and where to find them' and gently eased the book off the shelf and carried it over to a table.

"I wonder where Jasmine is?" Harry said, frowning as he looked up and down the Gryffindor table.

"Maybe she's with that girl, what's her name again?" Ron mumbled through a mouthful of mashed potato.

"Luna, and no she's not," Hermione sniffed, giving a look of disgust as Ron stuffed some carrot and parsnip mash into his already full mouth.

Harry looked over at the Ravenclaw table and sure enough Luna was there, eating alone. He grew restless as the minutes ticked by, "what if she's lost somewhere?"

"I'm sure she's fine," Ron tried to reassure him but Harry couldn't settle. It was unlike his cousin to miss out on dinner. It was at that moment that Jasmine stumbled into the Great Hall, her hair in disarray and her book bag slung haphazardly over her shoulder. She rushed over to Harry and plopped down onto the bench.

"Sorry, I got caught up in the library. I found this amazing book on magical creatures and it's so interesting."

Hermione's eyes lit up immediately as she heard the library, "Which book was it?"

Harry shook his head at Ron who just shrugged and shovelled another forkful of mashed potatoes in his mouth.

"Do you want to come and meet Hagrid with us on Saturday?" Harry asked in a lull of conversation and Jasmine was more than happy to accept.

The rest of the week passed with more classes, she earned 5 points for Gryffindor for her progress with the needle, she abysmally failed Lockhart's test and he had tutted in disappointment as he had handed it back, then on Friday morning it was time to brew their first potion. Jasmine had prepared for this class as she didn't want to give Snape any excuse for picking on her, not that it ever stopped him picking on Harry.

Her potion turned out perfect, Snape just scowled at it before moving on to the next student.

"We survived the first week," Jasmine sighed as she packed up her books and stuffed her wand into her bag as well.

"It was a long week, wasn't it?" Ginny said and Jasmine chuckled.

"Yes, the teachers really didn't ease us in. Luna and I are going for a walk on the grounds, if you'd like to join us," Jasmine said before Ginny could disappear again.

"I'd like that," a small smile lit up Ginny's face.

The three girls set off outside, chatting and laughing. They wandered around the lake and Luna tried to coax the giant squid out of the inky depths. They meandered ever closer to the forest.

"Oy, ye three over there, the forests out'er bounds."

They spun around to see Hagrid hanging out his kitchen window.

"We weren't going to go in," Ginny called to him and Hagrid waved them over.

The girls introduced themselves to Hagrid and he smiled at them while trying to contain an excited Fang.

"Delighted ter meet yeh," he said, shaking their hands vigorously.

"I knew straight away that yeh must be a Weasley, I spend half my life tryn' ta keep yer brothers outta trouble," his tone was unmistakably fond.

"Lovely ter meet you all, would you like some tea? I've got some cakes too."

By the time tea was made the girls were covered in Fang's slobber and he had his head resting on Luna's lap. This was how the girls found themselves drinking tea and pretending to eat cakes while chatting with Hagrid. He told them hair raising stories about all the mischief the twins and Harry, Ron and Hermione got up to. Jasmine almost choked on her tea several times because she was laughing so hard.

"If mum knew half of the stuff Fred and George get up to," Ginny said giggling as they walked back up to the school. "She would kill them."

Jasmine slept in the following morning and when she came down to breakfast she noticed that Harry was missing.

"He's gone to Quidditch practise," Ron told her, "you can come with me and Hermione if you want after breakfast."

Jasmine immediately spotted Colin Creevey in the stands with his camera. He waved at her and she waved back balancing her stack of toast on her lap as they sat down to watch the others fly. She'd have her first flight lesson the following week and she had butterflies in her stomach anytime she thought about it.

"What are they doing here?" Ron said, grimacing as he watched the Slytherin team strut onto the pitch.

"Causing trouble, what else?" Hermione narrowed her eyes. "Is that? It can't be…"

She trailed off and now Jasmine and Ron bent forwards for a closer look.

"It's Malfoy," spat Ron and jumped up. Hermione followed straight away but Jasmine looked mournfully at her toast before following them.

"...Mudblood!"

That's all Jasmine heard before the Gryffindor team went wild. Fred and George lunged at Malfoy who was saved by a huge troll-like boy stepping in front of him. One of the girls was shouting at him and Ron pulled out his wand. A green jet of light came out and hit him in the stomach. He flew back onto the grass and when he belched slugs fell out of his mouth. Jasmine gagged as the first ones came up. The Slytherins were laughing hysterically.

She saw Colin Creevey sprinting along the pitch, his camera poised to capture whatever was happening.

Harry and Hermione were busy trying to get Ron up and to Hagrid's. Colin was shoved aside as the trio walked away leaving behind a trail of slugs.

"C'mon, there's no point training now," said Wood gesturing to his team. The Slytherins were still howling with laughter.

"Are you coming Jasmine?" Fred asked her, watching her as she glared at the other team.

"Sure," she caught up to the twins and the other team members who were looking at her with interest.

"Jasmine, this is Oliver Wood he's the keeper, Alicia Spinnet, Angelina Johnson and Katie Bell, our chasers," George said and Jasmine smiled at them all.

"Nice to meet you, Harry's told me all about you."

The conversation turned back to the Slytherins.

"I can't believe that little brat said that," Katie said, her eyes sparkling dangerously. The others looked just as grim.

"Uhm, what does it mean?" Jasmine asked hesitantly.

"It's about the worst name for a Muggle-born witch or wizard," explained George. "You-Know-Who and his followers used it and all those old-fashioned purists who think that Muggle-borns shouldn't be allowed to practise magic. It's all nonsense of course and it's the minority who believe it," he added.

"Yeah, basically it means dirty, tainted blood," Wood cut in with a shake of his head.

"Someone should teach Malfoy a lesson," Fred said darkly.

They were all silent for a moment, Jasmine felt quite shaken.

"So are you a natural like Harry? Can we expect you to join the team or at least the reserves?" Wood changed the subject.

"I have no idea. I've never been on a broom before. We don't have flying lessons until next week."

"We have high hopes, don't we?" Wood nudged Angelina and she nodded loyally.

"Yeah, we really need to get some good reserves this year, in case one of us can't play."

Back in the common room she joined Neville at his table again and caught up with her homework. Once Neville was finished with his work they went to collect Luna and Neville led them around the castle showing them all the little tricks he had found in the previous year. They had a lot of fun and roamed along the many corridors and even found the entrance to a secret passageway which they followed until they reached a cave in.

They went to dinner rosy-cheeked and with cobwebs stuck to their robes and hair. Professor McGonagall eyed them suspiciously as they walked into the Great Hall.

"What have you three been up to?" she asked and Snape edged closer his dark eyes boring into them.

"Neville offered to show us around the castle as we've been getting lost and last week I got my leg stuck in the stairway," Jasmine said, trying to sound and look as innocent as possible. Neville quivering at her side wasn't helpful.

"Yes, and then I thought I saw Snarglepuffs down a passage at the Owlery so we went to follow them," Luna explained, looking as serene as ever.

"Snarglepuffs," Professor McGonagall said weakly.

"What pray tell are Snarglepuffs, Miss Lovegood?" Snape sneered.

He looked like he immediately regretted his question as Luna launched into a very detailed explanation with several references to other creatures.

Jasmine wasn't sure but it looked as though McGonagall was holding back a smile.

"That is enough Miss Lovegood," snapped Snape when it was clear that Luna could talk about these creatures at length.

"Miss Dursley, I'd like a quick word with you after dinner in my office. It's on the second floor."

"I can take her Professor," Neville offered.

"That would be kind Mr. Longbottom. And 5 points to Gryffindor for helping out the first years."

Neville glowed with pride all throughout dinner but Jasmine could barely manage a bite.

Why on earth would Professor McGonagall want to talk to her? Did something happen to her family? Was she in trouble for something?

Harry and Ron were also glum as they had their detentions that evening. Poor Harry, having to help Lockhart answer his fan mail.

Neville, true to his word, brought her to McGonagall's office after dinner.

He gave her an encouraging smile, "I'm sure it'll be fine."

She took a deep breath, straightened her shoulders, lifted her chin high before knocking on the door.

"Come in."

She entered the office which was cosier than Jasmine had expected.

"Would you like a biscuit?" Professor McGonagall offered and Jasmine breathed a sigh of relief. McGonagall would hardly be offering her biscuits if she was in trouble or if some tragedy had befallen her.

"Thank you," she said as she sat down on the chair opposite McGonagall's and took a chocolate bourbon biscuit.

"You are not in trouble," McGonagall said curtly, "however, I think it would be prudent that I warn you as you grew up in a Muggle household. I am sure that you are not familiar with a lot of magical creatures yet. While Miss Lovegood is a smart and friendly girl, I'd like to advise you to take what she says about all her creatures with a grain of salt. Her father runs a publication called the Quibbler and he fills it with theories of wild magic. Theories including lots of magical creatures whose existence has never been proven."

Jasmine nibbled on her biscuit as Professor McGonagall talked.

"Are you saying I shouldn't be friends with her?" Her face must betray her shock as Professor McGonagall was quick to answer.

"Of course not, like I said this is a warning that you should engage your critical thinking skills. If you can't find a reference to these creatures in a book in the library the likelihood of its existence is slim."

"Yes Professor, thank you."

As Professor McGonagall was not one for small talk Jasmine was on her way back to the tower with a sense of relief. Luna was so passionate about her creatures, Jasmine was sure that one day Luna would prove one of them but she didn't need to tell that to anyone.

She noticed that Ginny wasn't in bed when she came into the dorm but assumed that she had missed her in the common room. She was too tired to care at that moment and drew the curtains around her bed.

The only thing that differed in the second week was that they had an additional afternoon flight lesson. Jasmine knew that everyone was curious whether she shared Harry's talent on a broomstick but it was soon clear that she did not. While she was not by any means bad, she wasn't particularly good either. However, she did have a marvelous time whizzing around on the broom.

"You can borrow my Nimbus anytime you want," Harry offered generously. He was still so happy to have her at Hogwarts and that he was able to share everything with her again.


	9. Chapter 9

She developed a routine of sorts, she spent a lot of time with Luna and Neville and Ginny as well when she didn't do her disappearing act. She always had breakfast and dinner with Harry where they caught up on their days but between his Quidditch training and spending time with Ron and Hermione their time together was limited.

She visited Hagrid and Fang at least once a week and also made a trip to see Hedwig in the Owlery. Having Harry so near was a comfort, especially after she received a one-lined response from her family. Sarah hadn't written back either yet. She channelled her emotions into dance. This was one thing from home that she was able to hold on to, so often in the evenings she and Luna and sometimes Neville would look for an empty classroom where Jasmine could stretch and dance. She was teaching Luna all the basic movement and Luna was a natural.

And so the first month passed and Jasmine started to feel at home in the castle.

It was the second week of October when a package finally arrived from Sarah. It was delivered during breakfast by one of the school owls. She ripped it open and two packets of cat treats and a letter fell out. She put the cat treats in her bag before she unfolded the letter.

 _Dear Jasmine,_

 _I'm so sorry it took me so long to get back to you. I had an awful flu when I got your letter so I wasn't able to do anything for over a week and then I had to catch up on so much school work. Miss Eve has been so tough on us during lessons the last few weeks that I've been constantly exhausted. But now I finally have time to write back to you._

 _Other than the flu I'm doing well. I miss you too though, so much. Whenever I see something I'm like "Oh I need to tell Jaz about this right away" but then I remember that I can't just go over to your house._

 _Maybe I should start carrying around a notebook and writing everything down and then send those pages in with your letters._

 _School is going well too but I'm not as much of a nerd as you are so studying isn't that much fun ;). I have met some nice girls here but there are a lot of cliques and I think I'd much rather be at a mixed school but I just have to deal with it. Luna sounds nice, maybe she can come visit during the holidays and then I can meet her too._

 _I got two packs of treats then you and Luna both can take one. Maybe you can take some pictures of your school and send them to me. Then I can imagine everything better when you tell me your stories._

 _Missing you so much and can't wait how you get on with the cat. What's his/her name anyway?_

 _Love always,_

 _Sarah x_

Jasmine had a lump in her throat as she read the letter and then pressed it to her chest for a moment, willing back the tears. The day seemed to pass so slowly now that she and Luna had plans that afternoon to look for Mrs. Norris and give her treats.

The perfect moment arrived just as they were coming back from the owlery where Jasmine had sent off a thank you note to Sarah with a promise to write more soon.

"There she is, look," Jasmine said, elbowing Luna and rushing forwards.

They were in a deserted corridor on the third floor.

"Here kitty, here Mrs. Norris," she crooned as she slowly opened her bag to ease out the treats. Luna sat on her hunkers and Mrs. Norris eyed them distrustfully.

"Aren't you a pretty girl," Luna cooed and held out her hand which Mrs. Norris took a swipe at.

"Oh look she wants to play," Luna said grinning maniacally holding her hand out again.

Jasmine crouched down as well and handed Luna some treats.

"Come here cutie," she held out her flat palm but Mrs. Norris made no move closer.

Their standoff lasted for almost a minute before Luna sighed and plopped down on the ground.

"This isn't working, she doesn't trust us." Her face belay her emotions.

"She's just not used to us yet," Jasmine assured her, still optimistic.

"Look we can just put a treat on the ground in front of her and let her eat it that way."

Luna watched as Jasmine put one treat in front of Mrs. Norris who was still staring at them and then at the treat.

When she lowered her head to sniff at the treat, neither Luna nor Jasmine dared to move, holding their breath.

The treat passed the sniff test and Mrs. Norris tentatively licked it, Jasmine and Luna had inched silently closer.

"NOOOOOO, STOP. MRS. NORRIS DON'T EAT IT."

With a loud thump Jasmine and Luna bashed their heads together at the sudden interruption.

"YOU TWO! HOW DARE YOU! I'LL HAVE YOU STRUNG UP ON THE CEILING OF MY OFFICE….IN CHAINS….YOUR ANKLES. EXPULSION" Filch was incoherent with rage, spittle flying everywhere as he swooped Mrs. Norris into his arms.

"But...but…" Jasmine was dazed.

Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape were making their way back to their offices from Dumbledore's office when they heard the howling.

"Oh dear, I suppose we should have a look," Professor McGonagall said wearily.

"I wonder what the Weasley twins have done to warrant this level of outrage," Snape said silkily giving his colleague and sly look, "I haven't heard Filch this angry in a while."

"Why do you immediately suspect my students, it could very well be some Slytherin," sniffed McGonagall in disdain.

Snape shook his head with a smirk, "No Minerva, this has Gryffindor written all over it."

They turned the corner and stopped in their tracks, Jasmine and Luna were facing off with Filch who was still shouting at the them while also rocking Mrs. Norris in his arms.

"They're just…" Luna was trying to speak but Filch couldn't be reasoned with.

"POISON...MY PRECIOUS…"

"What is this infernal racket about," Snape stepped up having seen enough.

The girls wheeled around, relief etched on their faces when they spotted the teachers.

Jasmine had just opened her mouth to speak when Filch roared over her.

"I caught them red-handed Severus. They were trying to poison Mrs. Norris. You will be expelled for this."

"Calm down Argus," snapped Professor McGonagall, she had seen enough of his histrionics.

"You two, explain yourselves."

Jasmine turned pleading eyes on McGonagall.

"I swear we weren't trying to poison her, we just wanted to befriend her and that's why we were giving her a treat. They're regular cat treats." She held up the packet of treats and Snape took them from her.

"Lies," roared Filch and McGonagall gave him a scathing look.

"This will be cleared up momentarily," Snape said, wand in hand. He made a complicated wand motion and Jasmine could see his lips moving.

The bag of treats glowed blue for a moment before returning to their original state.

"Argus, these are regular cat treats," he said and wanted to bash his head against the wall. Why was he constantly surrounded by imbeciles?

Filch fell silent immediately, then with one last huff he turned and stalked back from where he came from.

"Go to your common rooms," said Professor McGonagall and the girls scurried off.

"Stop your gloating," McGonagall snapped, not fooled for a moment by Snape's blank facade.

"Luna is a Ravenclaw," she added and this time Snape smirked.

"I have a feeling that I'll be quite busy with those two ladies," sighed McGonagall and Snape actually huffed in amusement.

"Never, in all my years, have I had students trying to befriend Mrs. Norris."

Shaking her head Professor McGonagall veered off to the right while Snape continued on down the stairs pondering her words.


	10. Chapter 10

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, the twins and Lee all laughed themselves sick when they heard the story.

"Why, why would…" Harry panted.

George kept on slapping the armrest of the sofa and Fred was gasping for breath.

Their laughter was contagious, soon Jasmine was laughing too.

"Hats off to you Jasmine," Fred mock bowed pulling off an imaginary hat, Lee and George following suit.

"Never in all our time at Hogwarts did we think to do this," George said, wiping a tear from his eye.

"It wasn't a prank," huffed Jasmine, "we just wanted to befriend Mrs. Norris."

That set the others off again. The other students were now staring at them wondering why they were all howling with laughter.

"You're the worst," Jasmine muttered but there was a smile on her face.

 _Dear Sarah,_

 _As promised here is the longer letter I promised you. I'm so sorry to hear that you've been sick. Thank God you feel better. I almost cried when you mentioned Miss Eve. You can't imagine how much I miss our dance class. I still dance here at school and have taught Luna bits and pieces but it's not the same._

 _Anyway we had a bit of a disaster trying to give Mrs. Norris (that's the cat's name by the way) her treats. We were in a corridor when we spotted her and we called her over and held out the treats. She was very shy so we put it on the ground in front of her. So far, so good. Then, just as she was about to eat it her owner Filch comes around the corner screaming and shouting that we're trying to poison his cat. He was yelling that we'd get expelled and Luna and I were actually a little bit frightened because he was so angry._

 _Luckily two of our teachers passed by and they sorted it out. I swear, I have never seen anyone that angry about cat treats before. Luna and I are not sure if we should try again, I mean after all, no one actually said that we can't give her treats. :)_

 _Right well I'm off to bed now. Write back soon._

 _Love Jasmine xo_

Jasmine had expected that after their little adventure Filch would keep a close eye on them but Luna and Jasmine saw neither hide nor hair of either Filch or Mrs. Norris for two weeks after the incident.

Their second run in with Mrs. Norris went both better and worse than their first. They had just had an astronomy lesson. Luna had joined the Gryffindor/Slytherin lesson because she had missed her own due to being ill.

On their way back Archie a 16th century nobleman, and the biggest gossip in the castle, hanging on the fifth floor had stopped them to tell them some urgent news. Apparently Ursula from the dungeon "the harlot" had been sneaking off to visit Percival the Promiscuous in the Divination Tower and Richard near the kitchens was devastated.

While the girls were suitably horrified, they were also very late and way past their curfew.

"Bugger, if we're caught now we're in so much trouble," Jasmine whispered as they crept down the darkened corridor.

"What if we take the secret passage that comes out beside the library, that way it'll be a shorter distance out in the open."

"Good idea," Jasmine replied and Luna tapped the bust of some wizard standing outside a locked door. Once inside the passage they lit their wands and hurried down the winding passage.

Their luck ran out as they were just about to go their separate ways.

"Oh look there's Mrs. Norris," Jasmine whispered, the eery glow of Mrs. Norris' eyes the only thing seen in the darkness of the corridor.

"C'mon Filch is probably asleep. Let's try giving her a treat now," Luna said, gleefully pulling out her bag of treats.

Mrs. Norris obviously still regretted not eating the treat the last time because this time she took it straight from Luna's hand. In the dim wand light Jasmine could make out Luna's elated smile.

"And what do we have here? Ickle firsties, out of bed."

Jasmine groaned, "Hey Peeves, how are you?"

"Well now that I've found you I'm great," Peeves cackled and Jasmine knew that this would end badly.

Peeves tutted like a disapproving great-aunt for a moment before taking a deep breath.

"No Peeves, please. We'll be in so much trouble," begged Jasmine and Luna turned her wide and pleading eyes on him.

"Students out of bed, firsties out of bed," he screeched and Jasmine was just debating whether they should make a run for it before Filch burst through a tapestry and it was all too late.

He saw Luna on the ground, Mrs. Norris still eating treats out of her hand, Peeves floating and gloating and Jasmine standing with her wand half raised.

"Oh, I have you now," he said, his eyes glinting in light of the lantern he was carrying.

Luna and Jasmine exchanged a look before they reluctantly followed Filch to their doom.

As he led them down to the dungeons, Jasmine's heart sank further. Snape would not be very lenient and understanding, she had hoped that they would be taken to Professor Flitwick.

"Mr. Filch, why are you bringing us to Professor Snape, neither of us are in Slytherin?" Luna asked, the usual dreaminess gone out of her voice.

"Oh because, Severus is on duty this week," Filch smiled at them and Jasmine shuddered. Any and all sympathy she had felt for him in the wake of finding out he was a squib was gone.

They waited outside Snape's office and when he opened the door he looked as he always did, maybe he slept in his black robes, Jasmine stifled a snigger.

"Well, well, well, who do we have here?" Snape's quiet, silky voice bode nothing good.

"I found them skulking around the library," Filch said triumphantly.

"They were trying to bribe Mrs. Norris with those infernal treats," he spat and Snape raised an eyebrow.

"Explain yourselves immediately?"

He held up a hand as Jasmine was about to speak.

"On second thought, wait a moment while I invite your head of house to join us. He flicked his wand and a silvery mist dispersed in the air. Snape sat down behind his desk, while the girls and Filch were left standing. Jasmine's knees had turned weak at the thought of Professor McGonagall coming, the memory of her docking fifty house points of Harry vivid. Trying to keep calm, she took the opportunity to look around Snape's office. It was similar to the potions lab with all jars of floating creatures and plants on shelves.

Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick entered the office through bright purple flames. McGonagall wearing her hair in the familiar tight bun and a tartan dressing gown, Professor Flitwick in a midnight blue dressing gown, embellished with stars.

Professor McGonagall's lips were pressed so tight, that they almost disappeared, her eyes narrowed.

"What is going on here?"

Professor Flitwick looked more surprised than angry.

Filch immediately told them what he had told Snape too.

"Explain yourselves," she said coldly and Luna bowed her head. Clearly her earlier boldness had left her in the face of McGonagall's anger.

"We were on our way back from Astronomy," Jasmine said, squaring her shoulders.

"Why were you still out of bed an hour after class ended?" Snape said, looking at them intently, "and why was Miss Lovegood in that lesson in the first place."

"Miss Lovegood was ill for her own class so she joined the other lesson," Professor Flitwick was quick to defend his student.

Jasmine wished that McGonagall would also jump to her defence but she was waiting for an explanation, her arms crossed in front of her chest.

"Archie stopped us, he said it was urgent," Jasmine said and knew immediately that it was the wrong thing to say.

"And who is Archie?" Snape had both his eyebrows raised dangerously.

Now that she had to say it, it sounded stupid to her own ears. She mumbled it anyway.

"Stop mumbling Miss Dursley, it's most unbecoming," scolded Professor McGonagall.

"He's one of the paintings on the fifth floor," she repeated and noted absently that she would love to take a picture of their faces because in a different situation they would be hilarious.

"You stopped to have a chat with a painting," Professor McGonagall eventually said weakly.

"What was the emergency?" Snape scoffed, he knew which painting Jasmine was talking about and thoroughly despised him.

"Well, in hindsight it wasn't really an emergency, or urgent really. Archie can be a little dramatic at times," Jasmine admitted and if she wasn't wrong she could have sworn that McGonagall's lips twitched.

"We weren't trying to bribe Mrs. Norris, we just had the cat treats in our bag and thought we'd give her one," Luna added just in case one of the teachers tried to ask what Archie had actually told them.

"This is still unacceptable behaviour," McGonagall said.

The girls both bowed their heads.

"We have the rules in place for your own health and safety, and it is not safe to wander around the castle alone at night. Also you need your sleep girls," Flitwick said gently.

"Yes, sir," they mumbled.

"You will each lose 25 house points and serve 5 detentions each."

Jasmine's head shot up, "five?"

"Another word and it will be a month, Miss Dursley," McGonagall frowned.

They were escorted back to their towers and with an admonishing "good night" at the portrait Jasmine stumbled into the common room angry and tired.

Stupid Peeves. Everything would have been fine if he had kept his big gob shut.


	11. Chapter 11

"I can't believe it! You two fly to Hogwarts breaking the law, the actual law, and only get one detention. Luna and I are delayed on our way back from class and get five," said Jasmine.

Harry, grinned sympathetically while the others laughed.

"I can't believe you told them you were chatting with a painting," George sniggered and Fred snorted another laugh.

"I wish I could have seen their faces," Lee panted.

"It's not fair," whined Jasmine, "it's all Peeve's fault anyway."

"Look you'll do the five detentions and then it's over, it's not that bad." Harry tried to console his sulking cousin.

His attempt was immediately ruined when a note arrived telling Jasmine she would be spending her detentions with Snape. At least the others mostly stopped laughing and took pity on her.

"Did you get the note too?" Luna asked her on the way to class and Jasmine nodded glumly holding it up for Luna to see who moaned when she read it.

"They separated us for detention, I'm doing mine with Filch."

With Jasmine's mood darkened further by the news they had a quiet morning and spent it brooding by the lake.

"How does he get away with it? He makes everyone's life hell?" she muttered and Luna shrugged, frowning out at the water.

"I wonder if there is some way to pay him back?"

Luna turned to look at Jasmine who was lying back on the rock staring at the grey sky.

"I don't think that's a good idea, Jasmine. I think that could backfire massively, imagine if Peeves singled you out to torture," she said and Jasmine sighed. She had thought about that as well, but she also wondered if you managed to prank him once really well that he might leave you alone.

"Besides he's a poltergeist, a lot of magic doesn't work on him," Luna added and Jasmine sat up straight.

"I'm going to research Poltergeists this evening," she said, adding at Luna's doubting look, "reading can't hurt anyone."

"Don't do anything too stupid, promise?"

"Promise!"

Jasmine regretted her promise on the way back from detention that evening. Her entire body was aching and she was covered with terrible smelling gunk from head to toe.

Professor Snape had made her clean eighteen cauldron by hand and it had taken all evening. Jasmine couldn't begin to imagine what they had been brewing. All Jasmine wanted to do now was to hex Peeves into the next century especially if the next four detentions were the same.

The rest of her detentions with Snape didn't get any easier and by her last one she was sure that he hated her just as much as Harry. She had had to gut toads for two evenings, scrape rat guts off the ceiling for another and dissect dead spiders on her last one.

Luna didn't fare much better in her detentions with Filch. As she had been the one feeding his beloved Mrs. Norris he got her scrubbing bed pans in the hospital wing, bring the new school telescopes up to the Astronomy Tower, she had to carry each one all the way up. After carrying thirty telescopes she was exhausted and ready to pass out.

"I don't think I've ever exercised this much, I won't be able to walk tomorrow," she whined to Jasmine as they crossed paths in the Entrance Hall afterwards.

"At least you won't smell of toad guts for the rest of your life," Jasmine had replied, slime dripping down her face.

"Whatever you find for Peeves, I'm in," Luna muttered to her the morning after their final detention.

"Really?" Jasmine looked up surprised.

"Yeah, but it has to be so big, that he never touches us again," Luna said and Jasmine grinned.

"Challenge accepted."

Another thing had changed for the two girls, before their incident with Mrs. Norris they had been relatively unknown. People obviously had known that Jasmine was Harry's cousin but had lost interest quickly.

There were many rumours going around but the one that most students believed was that they had tried to poison Mrs. Norris.

It had catapulted them to instant fame and people came up to them in the corridor congratulating them for their attempt.

They largely ignored it because no one believed them when they tried to explain they were only trying to give Mrs. Norris treats.

It took Jasmine three long evenings to catch up on all the homework she had fallen behind and she spent those in the Ravenclaw common room which was a lot quieter and therefore easier for her to study. She did miss Neville though, so she made sure to have lunch with him at the Gryffindor table instead, Luna joining them as well.

After well over a month of Luna and Jasmine stuck at each other's side, nobody batted an eyelid to see them at different tables or different common rooms.

On the evening of Halloween Jasmine went down to the feast with the twins and Lee since Harry was going to the Deathday party.

"I wouldn't miss out on the Halloween feast for the world," George said as they walked down the stairs.

"Yeah, best feast of the year, I reckon," Lee agreed.

Jasmine was not disappointed, there was everything anyone could ever want to eat and Dumbledore had hired a troupe of dancing skeletons.

It was with a full sated stomach that Jasmine strolled back to the tower with the twins. Lee had disappeared in the mass of bodies streaming into the Entrance Hall. "What's going on there?" George asked, stepping on his tippy toes to see over the crowd of people that had gathered in a second-floor corridor.

"No idea, maybe Peeves did something," Jasmine replied and started to nudge her way through the crowd, Fred and George following closely behind her.

"Oh no," she breathed, as she read the bloody message on the wall, saw Mrs. Norris strung up and Harry, Ron and Hermione standing at the front.

"You'll be next Mudbloods," shouted Malfoy and Jasmine shuddered. She didn't notice Fred and George stepping closer to her.

Jasmine stepped back when Filch arrived on the scene and as much as she disliked him she couldn't help but feel sorry for him. When the other teachers arrived, they were sent back to their houses but Harry, Ron and Hermione had to stay behind.

"Where's Ginny?" Fred asked suddenly, he and George were walking either side of Jasmine, with Lee bringing up the tail of their group.

"No idea, I did see her at the feast though, she was sitting next to Romilda and Colin," Jasmine said which appeased Fred.

"I wonder if Ron, Harry and Hermione saw something?" Lee wondered and Jasmine shrugged.

"No idea, but of course Harry had to be first on the scene. He always manages to find trouble," she said shaking her head.

"I think I seem to remember that you've served more detentions this year than he has," Fred teased her and she pushed him.

It was after midnight when Harry and the others finally returned to the common room which was still packed as most people were discussing what had happened.

The crowd descended on them but Harry wiggled through and motioned for Jasmine to follow him upstairs.

"YOU WHAT? YOU HEARD A CREEPY VOICE THAT NO ONE ELSE CAN HEAR AND THIS IS THE SECOND TIME?" Jasmine screeched making Harry wince. He had forgotten how high-pitched she could get.

"I'm sorry, the first time I completely forgot about it, I swear Jasmine. You know, no secrets, I promise," he said. His beseeching look softened her expression.

"Fine you are forgiven for that," she said graciously and he grinned at her.

She smiled back, "But Harry, why didn't you tell Dumbledore about the voice. He needs to know. You need to go to him first thing in the morning."

"No, even Ron said that I shouldn't tell him. It's not a good sign when you're hearing voices," argued Harry hotly.

"Yes, because Ron knows best," Jasmine replied dryly shaking her head, "that's exactly why you should go to Dumbledore. I'm sure he'd be able to help you."

"No, I'm not going to Dumbledore and don't you dare either," Harry snapped, Jasmine glared at him.

"You know what I'm tired, I'm going to bed," she said and stomped out of the dorm.

Harry sighed deeply. It was always Jasmine's first solution, tell an adult and hope that they figure it out. However, Harry needed to figure this out for himself. What if Dumbledore decided he couldn't stay at Hogwarts if he was hearing voices? What then? There was no way he could return to Privet Drive.

The attack on Mrs. Norris was the only thing anyone talked about for the next couple of days. Jasmine was giving Harry the cold shoulder and when Ron asked him about it, Harry muttered about stubbornness, shrugging and telling Ron that she'd get over it.

Jasmine spent a lot of time with Ginny, in those few days, who was very upset by the attack on Mrs. Norris.

She often saw Hermione alone in the library feverishly searching through books but judging by her frustrated sighs and the way she slammed the books shut, she never found what she needed.


	12. Chapter 12

Jasmine was sitting in Charms on Wednesday morning, the only class she shared with Hufflepuffs, when she noticed that they were giving her a wide berth.

Colin slipped into his seat next to her and gave her a cheery smile, "alright Jasmine?"

They had developed a friendship over the last few weeks. They had agreed that Colin got to ask a maximum of five questions about Harry per day and surprisingly when Colin wasn't gushing about Harry he was really nice and funny.

They even had days where he didn't ask any questions.

"Why is everyone giving me such weird looks?" Jasmine whispered, meeting the eye of one girl in Hufflepuff who flinched violently and looked down quickly.

"I reckon it's cause Harry is your cousin," Colin said and continued at her blank look, "haven't you heard what everyone is saying about Harry?"

"No," she said sharply, "what are they saying?"

Colin looked ecstatic that he was the one telling her the news.

"They think that he's the heir of Slytherin, and that he's opened the Chamber of Secrets," he said breathlessly.

"The Chamber of Secrets?" Jasmine scrunched her nose in thought, she remembered Harry saying that Dumbledore had said that the Chamber had been opened again.

"Yeah, it's a myth really. It's in Hogwarts: a History," Colin told her.

"You know the school founders, don't you?"

Jasmine shook her head.

"Well Hogwarts has four founders: two witches and two wizards, the greatest wizards of their time. Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin. Anyway, as time went on Salazar Slytherin didn't want to let Muggleborns into the school anymore but the other three disagreed. They fought about it and Slytherin left. It is said that Slytherin built a hidden chamber which no one else could find. He locked the chamber and only Slytherin's true heir would be able to open the Chamber of Secrets again and unleash the horror within. The horror would purge the school of all those unworthy to study magic."

Jasmine had listened with growing horror, "that's awful. What's the horror within?"

"Nobody knows, according to legend, it's some kind of monster," Colin's eyes were so big that they almost fell out of his head.

"And people think Harry is the heir? That's ridiculous," Jasmine snorted.

"I know, Harry is good. He isn't evil," Colin agreed loyally.

"I have to tell him about this," she added to herself and then Flitwick entered the classroom ending their conversation.

Jasmine was almost finished her dinner by the time Harry appeared with Ron and Hermione.

She waved him over and he came immediately.

"I need to talk to you," they said at the exact same time and they both laughed.

"You first," Harry said but Jasmine shook her head.

"No best not at the table, we can go for a walk after dinner," she said and he nodded.

He scarfed down his dinner while she chatted about her classes, how she was trying to teach Fang to play fetch but he always brought back different things and not the actual stick she was throwing.

After dinner Harry and Jasmine wandered up the stairs.

"Alright, now you can talk."

Jasmine launched into her story of what Colin had told her.

Harry nodded along and told her what Binns had said. Then he told her that he, Ron and Hermione had gone exploring. He was glad that she didn't get angry again. "So the spiders are all leaving the castle?" she wondered aloud, "that's strange."

She laughed when he told her about Percy catching them in the girls bathroom.

"God, Myrtle's awful, isn't she?"

Harry could only nod in agreement.

Jasmine and Neville were sitting in two armchairs by the fire that evening engrossed in a game of wizards chess which Neville had been trying to teach her for the last month. Jasmine got horribly distracted by the figures themselves and would spend ages chatting with them on every go, Neville it turned out had the patience of a saint and was an excellent teacher. That evening, Jasmine was also distracted by the intense conversation Harry, Ron and Hermione were having. They weren't in their normal seats, in fact they were on the other side of the common room. Jasmine suspected it had something to do with Percy who intermittently scowled at them. She hoped they weren't planning anything too risky, she recognised the look on Harry's face and knew it didn't bode well.

"So what creature did you have to reenact today Harry?" George asked at lunch the following day, leaning forward, grinning expectantly.

He wasn't disappointed either.

"Werewolf," Harry scowled and Jasmine giggled.

"Did you have to howl? Go on, give us a demonstration," Fred laughed.

It was widely known that Lockhart liked to invite Harry to the front of the class to demonstrate his heroics. It was a common topic at lunches much to Harry's chagrin as the others howled with laughter at his suffering.

Lockhart did do demonstrations in his other classes, but his victims were picked randomly and usually everyone had to have a go at least once.

Jasmine had had the joy of acting like a ghoul. However after her enthusiastic performance Lockhart had declined to choose her again.

"Come to Myrtle's bathroom after lessons end," Harry muttered to Jasmine as they parted ways after lunch.

Jasmine was couldn't concentrate on her afternoon lessons and Luna just shrugged and pushed her notes across the desk. Jasmine gave her a grateful smile.

"Do you want to go to the library before dinner?" Luna gave her a meaningful look, their research wasn't going as well as they had hoped. While there was enough material on poltergeists they didn't really know themselves what they were looking for. Poltergeists had a natural resistance to most magic so it was proving tricky to find anything they could use against Peeves.

"I can't. I have to meet Harry for a bit but I can definitely go after dinner."

"Ok, I'll go and get started on my homework."

Jasmine hurried to the bathroom and found the trio huddled in a stall with an ancient looking tome.

"Whatcha doing?" she asked and enjoyed watching them startle.

"Merlin, Jasmine, put a bell on," Ron groused and Jasmine laughed.

"Your faces," she giggled and they came out of the stall.

"We're going to find out who the heir of Slytherin is," Harry told her and she raised an eyebrow.

"How?"

"We think it's Malfoy, or at least that Malfoy knows who it is," Hermione said, stroking a hand over the book.

"Right but how are you going to get Malfoy to confess? Oh God, are you going to give him Veritaserum?"

"Veritaserum?" Harry looked at her confused.

"Truth telling potion," Hermione said disapprovingly, as though Harry should have known.

"No, we're going to transform ourselves into 3 Slytherins by using Polyjuice Potion," she explained to Jasmine.

"Oh, can I do it too?" Jasmine asked.

"No, it's too risky," Harry said immediately and Jasmine scowled.

"Why are you doing it then?"

"What I meant is," Harry backtracked quickly, "we already are three people, that's enough to question Malfoy, you don't need to risk getting into trouble as well."

Jasmine still didn't look happy but she didn't argue any further. Harry knew that he would need to keep a very close eye on the both the potion and Jasmine when the time came.

They discussed the potion and how to get the ingredients from Snape's private store cupboard.

Jasmine had also offered to help but Harry was keen to keep her off Snape's radar as much as possible. He had been so relieved that Snape's vendetta against him hadn't extended to his cousin.

Jasmine woke up at dawn the following morning and was wide awake. Sighing she got dressed and made her way down to the common room grabbing some paper and pens. She may as well write her letters home. It was very frustrating writing to Sarah because she had to be so careful what to tell her and she hated lying to her friend. She started writing but scrunched up the sheet of paper after the first paragraph. Harry came into the common room just as she threw out her seventh attempt.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm trying to write to Sarah but it's impossible. Like how am I supposed to be her friend if I can't tell her anything about my life," Jasmine grumbled.

Harry was glad to have his mind off the match and let her rant all the way down to breakfast.

Jasmine quietened once they were surrounded by the others, their sombre mood rubbing off on her too.

She yawned as she buttered her fourth piece of toast and drizzled honey over it.

"Here you need to eat," she shoved it at George who had been gazing at it longingly.

"No I can't," he shook his head and Jasmine gave it a light shake gesturing for him to take it.

"At least have one bite, you don't want to fall off your broom, do you?"

She ducked her head at the outraged gasps from the team and their faces.

"Uhm, yeah, I'm just going to slide on over here," she said and slid slightly further up the bench.

Harry couldn't help but grin a bit, and George in his shock had taken a bite from the toast. Once he had the first taste he quickly shoved the rest of it in his mouth.

"I want one too," Fred said, watching his brother forlornly.

"Fine, take this one," Jasmine sighed and handed hers over.

Fred took it with a jaunty smile and Jasmine started to butter her sixth piece of toast.

She desperately wished she hadn't eaten so much at breakfast when she watched the bludger chasing Harry around the pitch, her stomach lurching.

She was standing on her seat and had grabbed someone's binoculars. She didn't notice the rain anymore as it dripped down into her robes.

The twins were chasing after Harry and the Bludger keeping it from battering him. Jasmine could hardly breathe and looked around the stands to see if there was a teacher who might be able to do something.

To her surprise there were none except Lockhart and she knew she didn't need to bother.

Why on earth wasn't Madam Hooch doing anything about the bludger? Why wasn't there anything she could do herself?

She watched the Gryffindors call a timeout and breathed a sigh of relief, finally.

Paralysation set in when she realised the plan. She didn't watch the match, her eyes glued to Harry as he swerved and dodged and twirled around in the air.

Her stomach lurched when the bludger collided with Harry's arm and even though she knew it was impossible she could have sworn she had heard the crunch of his bone.

She was out of her seat and running down the stands, hearing as the crowd went mad. Gryffindor must have won then, as the school wouldn't be cheering so loudly for Slytherin.

Her heart lifted slightly knowing that the match was over now and Harry was out of danger.

Jasmine ran onto the pitch to where Harry lay in the mud unconscious, surrounded by his teammates.

"Harry!" she screamed and knelt down next to him, shaking him as gently as she could.

More people streamed onto the pitch including Lockhart.

"Out of the way, out of the way, I need to tend to Potter," Lockhart shouted, shoving Jasmine aside.

"No, he needs to go to the hospital wing and Madam Pomfrey," she said coming to stand over Harry protectively.

"Don't be silly little girl, I can fix up Harry in no time," Lockhart gave her his most winning smiles and Jasmine wanted to smack a load of mud in his face.

"Oh no, not you," moaned Harry when he woke up and saw Lockhart leaning over him.

Ron and Hermione edged closer, nobody really knowing what they should do as Lockhart was a teacher but everyone knew that he shouldn't be anywhere near Harry's arm.

Jasmine absently noted the sound of clicking but it was Harry who told Colin to stop taking pictures.

Wood also tried to stop Lockhart but then it was already too late. Jasmine's stomach twisted as she looked at Harry's arm, that didn't really look like an arm anymore. Turning away with a hysterical giggle Jasmine saw Colin taking picture after picture while the Weasley twins were still wrestling with the bludger.


	13. Chapter 13

Ron, Hermione and Jasmine brought Harry back up to the castle and to the hospital wing, his boneless arm swinging around uselessly and bumping into things.

Jasmine helped Ron stuff Harry's arm into his pyjamas and then sat on the foot end of his bed.

When Madam Pomfrey tried to kick everyone out Jasmine obstinately refused and would have thrown a Dudley-style of tantrum had she been forced to leave. As it was she spent the rest of the day chatting to Harry trying to distract him from his pain. She told him about her and Luna's plans to get revenge on Peeves.

"And you think I'm reckless. You never get to lecture me on stupid things I do again," Harry had said, shaking his head.

Jasmine privately disagreed. Besides, the rogue bludger had given her an idea which she couldn't wait to share with Luna.

She was kicked out by Madam Pomfrey just before curfew. With one last hug, she left the hospital wing and went back to the common room.

The next morning the school was buzzing with the news that Colin Creevey had been attacked and was petrified as well.

"This is horrible," she said to the twins with whom she was having breakfast. Ron and Hermione were nowhere to be seen, presumably they were collecting Harry from the hospital wing.

"It's not usually like this," George tried to reassure her but shot Fred a worried look. Jasmine was a Muggleborn, she was a target of the monster of Slytherin.

"Maybe it's best if you don't walk around alone in the castle for now though, just to be safe," Fred said and Jasmine's insides turned to ice. Until then she hadn't thought about the monster in relation to her but it was true, she was a target.

"I won't," she promised.

She broke that promise almost immediately when she set off to search for Harry after she hadn't found him in the common room. When he also wasn't in the hospital wing any longer Jasmine meandered down the corridors. She felt quite safe as it was daytime and there were plenty of students milling around. She racked her brain where they could be and with a sudden flash of inspiration raced to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

She spent most of the morning and early afternoon with them. Harry told them all about Dobby and Jasmine decided to put house elves on the top of her list to research once she was done with Peeves.

"Do you want to go for a fly," Harry offered her on the way to lunch.

"No, thanks. I'm going to meet Luna in the library," Jasmine smiled at him and he rolled his eyes.

"Nerd." Harry's tone was impossibly fond.

"Luna," Jasmine whisper shouted a greeting as she spotted Luna sitting at their usual table in the library.

"Hi. How's Harry?" Luna asked and Jasmine grinned.

"In possession of two fully functioning arms again," she said and told her about Dobby, Colin and the Polyjuice Potion.

Once they had caught up on their news Jasmine leaned over the table, her eyes sparkling brightly.

"I think I know how we can prank Peeves now," she whispered and Luna's eyes widened.

"How?" she breathed.

"We've been trying to turn him into something the whole time but we can just charm him to do something rather than try to change what he is," she said.

Luna started bouncing slightly in her seat.

"Of course, it's easier to charm a Poltergeist than to transform it but they still can undo most magic."

"Not if they're moving, do you remember that big green book we had last week?"

"It said that in order to fully undo magic the Poltergeist must be completely motionless," recited Luna in an excited whisper.

"So all we have to do…"

"Put a charm on him that keeps him moving." Luna's voice had risen above a whisper at this point.

"Exactly!"

The girls grinned at each other triumphantly.

Once they had figured out Peeve's weakness it was only a matter of finding the spell and learning it. This was easier said than done, because despite being near the top of all their classes they were only first years and the spell was advanced. They practised daily, looking for empty classrooms and never practising in the same room two days in a row convinced that this would lessen their chances of getting caught.

"Careful," Jasmine squealed and Luna ducked as an apple flew in her direction.

"I thought we said that we'd only practice using soft objects," she complained as she held onto the struggling apple waiting for Jasmine to perform the counter curse.

"Sorry, I thought maybe I'd have more control over a small object," Jasmine apologises looking dejected. She was having worse luck than Luna.

"Ok, let me do it and you run around the room," Luna said and Jasmine sighed.

"Sure, hit me," she said.

"Persequi infinitum," Luna said, her wand pointed at the cushion and then flicking over to Jasmine in a complicated wrist movement. The cushion lifted off the desk and started to move in Jasmine's direction who turned to run down to the other end of the classroom, the cushion in steady pursuit.

"Well done, you did it," cheered Jasmine as the cushion repeatedly hit her.

"Ooof," the cushion had smacked her face so hard, all words were knocked out of her.

"Oh no Jasmine, are you alright?," Luna ambled down to where Jasmine was trying to fend off the vindictive cushion.

"Finite incantatem," Luna said and the cushion fell to the ground motionless.

"I think we're almost ready." Jasmine said, rubbing her nose gently.

"That might have been a fluke," Luna replied.

"Yeah but if you practise for another day or two I'm sure you'll have it perfect."

"I suppose you're right. C'mon it's your turn," Luna reminded Jasmine who sighed and grabbed her wand from the desk she had left it on.

"Get ready to run," she told Luna who chuckled.

"We should do it soon," Jasmine said, glaring in the direction of Peeves who was zooming along the corridor cackling after he had emptied a pot of black ink over her. Luna hummed her agreement and couldn't hold back a giggle as Jasmine contorted herself trying to see the damage on her back.

"No, like really soon. I'm serious," Jasmine repeated herself.

"But what if it goes wrong?" Luna asked worriedly, she had every reason to be worried. She had managed to send Jasmine to the hospital wing after her practise spell hit an errant book and Jasmine hadn't been quick enough. Jasmine had assured her several times through a severe nosebleed and the bruising of her left eye that it wasn't so bad.

Madam Pomfrey had simply sighed and fixed Jasmine's face.

"You are ready, yesterday was an unlucky fluke. Think about it, the spell has been going right more often than wrong now," Jasmine said encouragingly.

"Ok, but then you'll need to get the cloak off Harry." Luna braced herself as Jasmine squealed excitedly. She couldn't hold back her own grin at the thought of their plan.

"Harry, can I borrow your invisibility cloak tomorrow?" Jasmine asked quietly that evening in the common room.

"Sure, what do you need it for?" Harry asked, groaning in dismay once Jasmine had filled him in on her plan.

"You're mental. Why on earth do you think it's a good idea to prank Peeves. It'll backfire and then he'll pick on you for all eternity. You're only a first year, you have so many years of Hogwarts ahead of you. Not even Fred and George mess with Peeves."

"That's why we need your cloak, so that he won't see us," said Jasmine.

"What's the point of revenge then?" Harry asked her, his brow scrunched.

"Can I have it or not?" she asked him impatiently.

"Be my guest. It was nice knowing you," he grinned and she hit his arm and went back to her game of chess with Neville.

The next day the two girls were jittery with nerves, Jasmine dropped the buttons she was supposed to transfigure into thimbles three times before she was back at her desk. Luna missed her chair in DADA and ended up sprawled in a heap on the ground.

Once their last class was done they rushed to Ravenclaw tower where they dumped their bags and then pulled on Harry's invisibility cloak leaving the common room behind some sixth years.

Being invisible was fun in itself so they spent a good half hour creeping along the corridors avoiding people and trying to stifle their giggles.

They stationed themselves near the staircase on the first floor. After some observations they had found that this was the staircase Lockhart favoured to go down to the Great Hall.

More often than not Peeves could also be found there around the same time because he loved to pelt spitballs at Lockhart. Their mutual dislike of Lockhart was the only thing Jasmine shared with Peeves.

"Where is he? Why isn't he coming?" whispered Luna after a while. They were crouched down and Jasmine's leg was starting to cramp up.

"I have no idea, he usually goes down now. Let's wait ten more minutes and then try again in the morning."

"Ok," Luna breathed and stretched as best as she could.

After another twenty minutes the girls gave up, they took off their cloak after checking nobody was around and then joined the others for dinner.

Lockhart was sitting at the teacher's table beaming from ear to ear as he chatted with Snape. Snape looked like he would rather eat poison that be there.

"We'll just have to get them before breakfast?" said Luna and Jasmine nodded her agreement before they went their separate ways to have dinner.

At Harry's questioning look Jasmine shook her head and he shot her a quick grin.

"At least I'll have you in my life for another evening," he quipped and she stuck out her tongue.

After dinner Jasmine joined Luna and Neville in the library where they worked on their homework and were eventually asked to leave as they got into a fit of giggles and Jasmine managed to knock a stack of books off their table.

The next morning just before eight o'clock Jasmine and Luna met in the Entrance Hall which was still mostly empty at this time. They went up the first flight of stairs and then behind a suit of armour draped the cloak over themselves.

"I'll never be able to get over the feeling of being invisible," Jasmine murmured fascinated.

"It's not that hard," Luna said quietly and Jasmine stared at her for a long moment before she was forced to move or lose the protection of the cloak.

"What do you mean?"

Luna's cheeks flushed and she was silent for a moment.

"Uhm...I just meant...oh look, there he is," she whispered, anxiously fumbling around her sleeve looking for her wand.

"It's fine, you have time. Peeves isn't here yet anyway," said Jasmine, craning her neck as far as she could to get a better view.

Luna had just pulled out her wand the second Peeves came zooming along the corridor humming loudly. In her hurry the wand clattered to the ground, Luna instinctively bending down to reach for it which in turn pulled the invisibility cloak askew. With a hissed breath Jasmine moved to cover them again, luckily neither Peeves nor Lockhart noticed them. Lockhart was busy trying to duck around Peeves who kept dive bombing at him.

"Now," urged Jasmine. Luna's hand was shaking slightly.

"Persequi infinitum," said Luna, her wand making the familiar flicking motion. For a moment it seemed as though nothing had happened. Peeves was still diving at Lockhart but then with an almighty shriek he was forced upside down and with a surge of speed propelled down the hall, crashing into suits of armour along the way.

"What?" Lockhart looked dumbfounded and then clapped his hands together in a very self-satisfied manner.

"Well, that's got rid of him," he said jovially to the air around him and continued on his way to breakfast.

Luna and Jasmine looked at each other before bursting into laughter.

"Oh my God, I can't….I can't," Jasmine was gasping for air, Luna couldn't form words.

They had collapsed in a heap on the ground and parts of them were showing under the cloak but neither of them cared right now in their elation.

"That went even better than planned," Jasmine grinned at Luna who grinned back.

"Technically it went wrong," she corrected her friend who waved away her objection.

"Who cares? This is better than we could have hoped for. Although I do wish we'd somehow get to Lockhart. He probably thinks that he jinxed Peeves and will take all the credit for it."

"I don't even care right now. Did you hear him shriek?"

They both started laughing again.

Ten minutes later once they had calmed down slightly and wiped

the tears from their faces they entered the Great Hall and went to sit at the Ravenclaw table. Lockhart was sitting at the teacher's table undoubtedly regaling them with how he had vanquished Peeves judging by his exaggerated hand movements.

Snape and McGonagall were looking aghast and Dumbledore was smiling and stroking his beard. The two girls erupted into giggles every time they looked at each other but sadly Peeves didn't appear in the Great Hall.


	14. Chapter 14

However by breaktime the news that someone had hexed Peeves had spread like wildfire and nobody could hide their glee.

Jasmine and Luna almost died whenever Peeves whooshed by them jerking uncontrollably in different directions, through walls, ceilings and floors. He was no longer shrieking but that didn't stop huge bouts of laughter trailing after him in the hallways.

The news that it was Lockhart who had jinxed Peeves spread just as fast. Jasmine had rolled her eyes at Luna when Lockhart told them all about it.

"That was you, wasn't it?" Harry said to Jasmine as he caught up to her and Luna at lunch time. None of the teachers had taken pity on Peeves yet and he was still going round and round the castle.

"It was Luna actually," Jasmine beamed at her best friend who blushed under the admiring looks from Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"Bloody brilliant," Ron enthused while Hermione praised Luna's advanced spellwork.

"I'm glad that you're still alive. Are you sure Peeves didn't see you?" Harry asked them.

Luna shook her head, "he was too busy looking at Lockhart."

Peeves was only released from his ordeal in the evening after dinner. It was a highly entertaining affair because Dumbledore had ordered Lockhart to break the spell since he had been the one to put it on Peeves. So Lockhart had spent twenty minutes chasing Peeves through the halls and finally managed to end the spell.

Initially Luna and Jasmine were irked that Lockhart had taken ownership of their very successful prank on Peeves.

However, once Peeves reappeared from his self-imposed exile a week later and dropped a gallon of foul-smelling green slime on Lockhart during breakfast they decided that everything had turned out perfectly.

Only Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, George, Fred and Lee knew the truth.

After the excitement passed life went back to normal for Jasmine.

She regularly wrote letters to Sarah, writing about her friends and other thoughts running through her mind. While she still hated having to lie to her best friend she couldn't bear to lose this link to her old life.

All the letters from her family were just as stilted and brief as the very first one had been. Even though she could freely mention magic and Hogwarts in her letters to her family she thoroughly avoided any mention and if a stranger had read one of her letters they would have believed her to be attending a regular boarding school in Scotland.

A general sense of fear had steadily grown in the aftermath of Colin's attack. Students were trading talismans and protections spells but Jasmine refused to buy anything. She couldn't deny being unsettled by the attacks but she also secretly believed that if Slytherin's monster was out to get you it wouldn't be stopped by garlic socks or putrid bits of fur that people wore around their necks. She was oblivious to the fact that Harry, Luna, Neville and the Weasley twins all made sure that she wasn't wandering around the castle by herself.

Ginny was extremely affected by Colin's attack. Before she had talked to Jasmine and sometimes would spend time with her and Luna but afterwards she completely withdrew. She got up earlier and disappeared from the dorm before Jasmine had so much cracked her eyes open. She scurried into the Great Hall at the mealtimes once Jasmine was already sitting. Even when Jasmine saved a seat for her and frantically tried to wave her over Ginny kept her head down and moved to sit at another empty spot.

Jasmine was worried about her, the fact that George and Fred had taken to jumping out at her covered in fur and boils did not help anyone. Jasmine could attest to that, the twins had accidentally jumped out at her one morning when they were expecting their sister.

Jasmine's knees had gone weak and she had screamed so loudly that everyone in the adjoining dorms had come out to see what was going on.

Fred and George had profusely apologised and once she had gotten over the fright Jasmine was able to laugh it off.

A letter that arrived in the first week of December abruptly ended any and all reasons for Jasmine to laugh.

She had opened it in the library where she, Luna and Neville were doing their homework.

"Where are you going? Jasmine!" called Luna. Jasmine didn't turn around, a hand pressed to her mouth she walked as quickly she could without running through the stacks of books. She didn't know where to go, there was nowhere where she would be guaranteed to be alone. She blindly strode on, biting her cheeks and willing the tears not to fall. Eventually she ended up in the Owlery which was blessedly empty. She sat in the furthest corner from the entrance and finally let her tears fall freely. She lost track of time and watched as the sky gradually turned darker. When her tears had dried up, she leant her throbbing head against the stone wall and looked up at her feathered companions.

She only got up once she couldn't fight back her shivers and slowly walked back to the school. She was starving and knew that she couldn't go into the Great Hall looking as she did then.

Luna and Neville had searched everywhere for Jasmine and were frantic with worry.

"Maybe we should get the others to help us search," Neville suggested but Luna shook her head.

"No, she wouldn't have run out if she wanted to talk. Come on, we haven't checked the Owlery yet."

"It's already dark outside." Neville looked out the window into blackness.

"If we don't find her there we'll get Harry to help us," said Luna.

"Ok."

Fred, George and Lee were just coming back from an outing to Hogsmeade when they bumped into Jasmine.

"What happened? What's wrong?" Fred asked rushing over to her. She looked frightful.

Jasmine shook her head, knowing that if she were to speak she'd burst into tears again.

"Here take this! You're freezing." George took off his thick, wooly cloak and put it around her shoulders.

The warmth enveloped her and the kind gesture overwhelmed her. With dawning horror she realised that tears were slipping down her cheeks again.

Fred didn't let her turn away.

"What's going on?" he asked softly.

Jasmine just held out the letter. She didn't trust herself to say the words out loud.

The three boys leaned over the letter to read.

 _Dear Jasmine,_

 _Thank you for your letter. We are glad that you are doing well and keeping up with your studies._

 _To answer your question in regard to Christmas. Your father and I think it is best if you stay at school these holidays as we are planning to go skiing with the Polkisses and it will interfere with your return dates. We're sure you will have a wonderful time at school with your friends._

 _Take care._

 _Love Mum, Dad and Dudley x_

Fred wanted to curse her entire family, how could they do this to her?

What the Weasley's sometimes lacked in material possessions they certainly made up for it in the unconditional love and support they gave each other.

The boys looked at each other, Jasmine was still silently crying.

"Come here," George pulled her into a hug and she sank into it. Her silent tears turning into sobs.

"Why don't we go somewhere a little less exposed," Fred said and George and Lee nodded.

By the time they had reached the kitchens Jasmine's sobs had turned into hiccups and she was mortified. She had not wanted to blubber in front of anyone and now there was a damp patch of tears and snot on George's jumper.

"Sorry about that," she said once they had ushered her into the large cavernous room that must be the school's kitchen. There were hundreds of little creatures scurrying about scrubbing pots and pans, preparing desserts and placing them on a table from where it disappeared into thin air.

"Don't worry about it," said George handing her a tissue.

"Yeah, it's healthy to cry," chimed in Lee.

"And Lee would know all about it," teased Fred, "he cried this morning when George ate his last Snickers."

"I'd cry too," said Jasmine sagely and was at last able to crack a weak smile.

"Are we allowed to be here?"

"There is no explicit rule against it," said Fred with a wicked grin.

"And other rules are free to interpret," added George.

"I'll get us something to eat, the elves love it when we come. They usually don't get to see the students so they're over the moon when they see us enjoying the food in person."

Lee walked over to a group of elves who had congregated at one of the big stoves.

"So we're basically doing them a favour by coming in?" Jasmine's grin was more genuine again.

"Exactly." Fred winked jauntily and she giggled.

In the ensuing silence Jasmine studied the busy house elves rushing to and fro. Harry's description was apt, however she found them quite endearing especially once a group of them descended upon them setting out scrumptious food and chatting in their squeaky voices.

"Are you the only students who come here?" asked Jasmine, leaning back in her chair. She had shrugged off George's cloak in the warm kitchen and an eager elf had plucked the owl feathers out of her hair.

"Reckon so, we've never come across anyone else," shrugged Lee.

"We'll show you later how to get in so you can come by for a snack," offered Fred magnanimously.

They returned to Gryffindor common room quite late to find Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville in an uproar. It took a lot of reassurances from all sides involved that Jasmine was alright and then she was able to go to bed.

Harry was fuming on her behalf, although he had feared that it may happen, he had hoped for her sake that the Dursley's wouldn't prove him right.

The Weasley twins then decided to stay over Christmas too. Percy and Ron had already decided to stay so now it was only up to Ginny to decide whether she wanted to go home or not.

Jasmine put the letter in the box in her trunk with all the other letters. As much as she wished to destroy it, this piece of evidence, that her life at home was falling apart she refused to make excuses for her family any longer. She would have to face the truth from now on. One week later she signed the list Professor McGonagall sent around.


	15. Chapter 15

****Author's Note****

To anyone following this story - I am so so sorry. Real life got in the way and I haven't been on here in ages. This is fully written so only needs to be edited which I'm going to do diligently for the next few days so I'll upload as I go along. Thanks for sticking with it for so long :)

Her emotional breakdown had bonded the three boys and Jasmine, no matter how embarrassed she was by her emotional outburst.

Harry barely got to see his cousin in the following days because she was either with Luna, Neville or the twins and Lee. He was glad because the twins always managed to wipe the sad, faraway look from her face with their antics.

This was the reason why Jasmine was completely oblivious to the plans Harry, Ron and Hermione had made for their Thursday Potions class and Jasmine was suddenly standing in the middle of the chaos, her mouth wide open as she turned on her heel taking in the scene.

She caught Harry's eye who gave a little shrug before she burst out laughing. Harry signed desperately with his eyes that she should stop. He briefly contemplated dragging her out of the classroom before Snape noticed her.

"Miss Dursley, would you care to share what you find so amusing?" Snape's silky smooth voice cut through the room silencing it immediately.

Harry felt dread creep up his spine slowly, wanting to protect Jasmine but knowing there was nothing he could do because he would undoubtedly make it worse.

Jasmine sobered up too but when she looked at Snape who was supporting Malfoy's humongous nose in one hand she let out a sound like a strangled cat and one hysterical giggle left her mouth before she clamped it shut. The whole class held their breath waiting for annihilation.

"Detention Miss Dursley, two weeks detention. Now tell me why you are here disrupting my class?"

Jasmine wordlessly handed Snape the piece of parchment and Harry could tell she was still fighting back her mirth. Not even the prospect of detention dampened her amusement. She was almost set off again by Draco glaring at her from over his club nose.

Snape's grimace grew as he read the note and Harry hoped it wouldn't be a case of killing the messenger because Snape looked positively murderous.

"Tell him I will speak to him later," he snapped at Jasmine who reluctantly dragged her gaze away from all the other victims of the engorgement potion.

"Yes sir."

"And be here at six p.m. sharp."

"Yes sir."

At least Hermione had been able to get all the ingredients they needed for the Polyjuice Potion.

"Two weeks with Snape? My deepest sympathies," said Fred, bowing his head and dodging Jasmine when she tried to elbow him.

"Don't. I'm trying not to think about it. How is it my fault? You should have seen Malfoy's nose, it was huge," Jasmine laughed again at the memory, "Snape was propping him up!"

"We'd better keep an eye in case he tries to get back at her," Fred said later to George after they had escorted Jasmine to the dungeons.

Malfoy was in fact fuming. It had been one of the most humiliating moments of his life, the other being the Quidditch match a few weeks ago. Both times the source of his humiliation had come from the same family. First Potter and now his mudblood cousin Dursley. How dare she laugh at him! No one laughed at a Malfoy.

He rubbed at his nose, ever since the class that morning he hadn't been able to stop touching it every few minutes. At least Snape hadn't stood for it and given her two weeks of detention. Malfoy knew his godfather well and he knew that he would ensure that she hated every single second.

At first he had been determined to get revenge himself but he had noticed that in the last few weeks she seemed to have struck up a friendship with the Weasley twins and nobody was stupid enough to get on their wrong side. The twins wielded a power greater than the prefects and head boy and girl. They were universally liked, even most of the Slytherins had at one time or another applauded their pranks. Their popularity was a powerful shield and no one ever wanted to become a target for one of their pranks.

Jasmine at that present moment was elbows deep in a barrel of toads which she was supposed to gut. She had forgotten how they stank.

Snape had greeted her with a glare and a lecture about safety in the potions classroom and how her reaction had been entirely inappropriate. She had been dying to point out that the swelling solution wasn't going to kill anyone and so his lecture was pointless but she was smart enough to know that it would end in at least two more weeks of detention.

By the time detention was over her arms were aching, she was covered in toad guts and she wanted to cry at the thought of another thirteen evenings spent in Snape's dour company.

On the day of her third detention, Jasmine was having a terrible day. She hadn't slept well the night before so she had accidentally set her quill on fire as she had tried to transfigure it into a candle holder and McGonagall had given her a detention because she thought she had done it on purpose. Then Lockhart had given them an impromptu test which she had failed and now had to write out the incorrect answers five times. And now she was supposed to scrub thirteen cauldrons by hand.

Wordlessly, she rolled up her sleeves and lifted the first one off the stack into the large sink at the back of the classroom. She was startled at the sound of books falling to the ground. She turned and saw that Snape had knocked her book bag off the desk on which she had left it. She hadn't had a chance to leave it in the tower as she had already had detention with McGonagall where she had had to write lines. Her right hand was already aching.

She moved to pick them up but Snape held up a hand to stop her and levitated the books and bag from the ground. He sneered at the cover of "Gadding with Ghouls" and then even more when he pulled out a sheet of paper.

"A fail Miss Dursley?" he sneered and she felt indignation and humiliation rise in her chest. It wasn't her fault that Lockhart asked the most inane questions known to wizardkind.

She didn't respond and turned back to the cauldron, picking up a wire brush and a bottle of cleaning essence.

"What is this?"

She reared back after Snape thrust her test in her face.

"Huh?" she asked, confused.

"What is this?" enunciated Snape very clearly and slowly.

"That's my Defence Against the Dark Arts test," she responded just as slowly and clearly. What did Snape think it was? A kitten?

"How is Lockhart's favourite type of biscuit relevant to Defence against the Dark Arts?"

"Beats me," muttered Jasmine rolling her eyes.

"Do not roll your eyes, Miss Dursley," snarled Snape, but it was half-hearted at best. He spun on his heel walking back to his desk with the test still in hand.

Jasmine shrugged and started to scrub.

Snape was apoplectic. This, this was what that dunderhead was teaching the children? It was an insult to everyone involved. How could Dumbledore ever have hired this man? Snape had steadfastly refused to read any of Lockhart's books because he didn't believe for one second that Lockhart had done any of those extraordinary things.

A few of his students had complained about Lockhart but never in detail and Snape had assumed that they just didn't like him as a person which was only natural in his opinion.

One question was worse than the last one and he was tempted to tear up the parchment into tiny pieces or to set it on fire.

When the time was up he told Jasmine to pack up and finish the rest the next evening. He looked up from the homework he was marking when he felt Jasmine standing in front of him.

"Yes?"

"Could I have my test back please? I need it for my homework."

Snape grimaced internally and handed the test back silently.

"Albus, you can't seriously keep him as a teacher after what I just told you?"

Snape was outraged and Professor McGonagall didn't look much happier. Snape had chosen her as his ally, as she was one of the few who may sway the headmaster and she hated nothing more than subpar education.

"And what do you suggest I do, Severus? Who is going to step in and teach in the middle of the school year?"

"Anyone would be better than that blathering buffoon," snapped Snape and McGonagall nodded in agreement. Like Snape she had been unaware of Lockhart's complete ineptness at teaching.

Dumbledore just looked at them evenly from above his steepled fingers.

"I'm afraid that Lockhart is staying. However, I will have a word with him about his curriculum and assessment questions."

Snape wasn't satisfied but knew that there was nothing else to be done.

"Maybe you can accidentally incapacitate him during the duelling club nonsense," muttered McGonagall darkly on their way back from the headmaster's study.

At first Snape had been adamant that he would not be part of the spectacle that was Lockhart's duelling club but after witnessing new levels of incompetency Snape had decided to accept Lockhart's invitation. He was itching to throw some curses at the simpering fool.


	16. Chapter 16

Jasmine had completed one whole week of detention with Snape and was wallowing in self-pity when everyone coming in to the common room was excited and eagerly chatting about a duelling club.

"I won't be able to go anyway. I have detention," she moaned after Fred and George had filled her in.

"Bad luck," sympathised Lee and Jasmine groaned letting her head fall back onto the arm rest

"Snape is evil. I don't even want to know what he has plotted for this evening."

It turned out that Snape had found someone else to torture that evening as Jasmine received a note during dinner telling her that detention was postponed for the evening and would resume the following day.

Jasmine could scarcely believe her luck and was able to join in on the general excitement surrounding the duelling club. She lost the twins in the crowd as she searched for and found Luna. She watched the introduction with a horrified kind of fascination. Like Harry she privately thought that if Snape were looking at her with such fury she would run as fast and as far away as possible. The demonstration was just as entertaining as it was educational, however, even without detention Snape managed to spoil her evening.

"Miss Dursley you work with Miss Greengrass please," Snape's smooth voice cut through the crowd easily and Jasmine and Luna shared a quick look. Luna wandered off to find a partner and Jasmine turned to Astoria. She had never talked to the girl who was always very quiet in class.

Astoria gave her a tentative smile and Jasmine beamed back. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

"I'm Astoria, I don't think we've officially met," said Astoria, her voice soft and shy.

"Yeah, we have a few classes together right? I'm Jasmine," replied Jasmine taking the hand stretched out by Astoria.

"On the count of three," called Lockhart from the other side of the room.

On two, absolute havoc broke loose. There were curses flying back and forth, people shouting, laughing and fighting.

Jasmine looked over at Astoria who still hadn't raised her wand and felt that it would be unsportsmanlike to disarm her without warning. There was something so gentle and vulnerable about Astoria, it would be like kicking a puppy.

"It's not a damn tea party," shouted Snape in disbelief after Jasmine politely asked Astoria whether she'd like to go first. He was quickly distracted by someone else setting their partner's hair on fire.

The girls decided that Jasmine would disarm Astoria first and then Astoria would try out the spell on Jasmine. They both succeeded and then proceeded to watch the others, who were all embroiled in various different battle stances and most of them looked worse for wear.

"Move," Jasmine shoved several people out of the way trying to get to Harry who was being herded out of the Great Hall by Ron and Hermione. There was a heavy silence in the Great Hall, nobody daring to speak in the aftermath of what had just happened.

By the time Jasmine had entered the Gryffindor common room Harry was sitting in front of the fire by himself, Ron and Hermione had gone up to change.

He was slightly cheered by Jasmine's reaction which as a muggle born was underwhelming.

"Cool, you should totally get a pet snake. I mean how great would it be to be able to talk to your pet. I'm so jealous," she gushed and Harry laughed.

"Apparently it's a sign of being a dark wizard."

He was equal parts comforted and insulted by her spluttered laugh, "you an evil wizard. Yeah, you wish. You can't even kill a spider."

"That was one time," he muttered and Jasmine just smiled at him.

"It wasn't a criticism Harry."

"But what if I am? A descendant of Salazar Slytherin?"

Jasmine looked at him for a long time before answering with a serious look on her face.

"So what if you are? It wouldn't change who you are today. And you're my cousin so I'd also be a distant relative of him."

Harry was touched by her attempt at cheering him up didn't point out that technically if it was on his dad's side then it wouldn't affect Jasmine in the slightest. But he was comforted at the idea and chose to believe it.

It didn't stop him from lying awake half the night wondering whether maybe he should be in Slytherin instead.

The following morning he grabbed Jasmine's arm before she could rush off to the Ravenclaw table.

"Can we talk for a minute?"

"Sure," replied Jasmine and he led her out of the Great Hall.

Jasmine caught up with Luna in Herbology after having reassured Harry about all the doubts he had been having. The rest of the day was uneventful, until news broke that Justin Finch-Fletchley had been petrified and Harry Potter had been caught red-handed.

"Oh shut up!" Jasmine pushed past a stout third year Hufflepuff who was wringing his hands and proclaiming to everyone near him that he knew this was going to happen and stomped on his foot.

"Ow," he shrieked and started hopping on one foot.

"Oops, sorry," she said, her best fake smile on her face before she rushed back to the common room. She wanted to see Harry before she had to go to detention.

Fred, George and Lee insisted on accompanying her down to the dungeons.

"Seriously Jasmine, you shouldn't be wandering about by yourself," said George, looking unusually serious.

"We'll come pick you up after your detention," Lee agreed, a pinched look on his face.

"Alright," acquiesced Jasmine because she was a little freaked out by the new attack.

Snape surprised Jasmine by cutting the detention shorter than usual. She had finished cleaning the remaining cauldrons and then had asked him what she should do next. He had handed her a sheet of potion ingredients and told her to write and learn all the properties and main potion uses of them. She gaped, there were over 10 ingredients on the list.

Then he rose from behind his desk.

"Come Miss Dursley, students are not to wander around the castle after dark by themselves."

Jasmine's horror grew at the thought of having to trail through the whole castle with Snape.

"Fred, George and Lee were actually going to collect me again. Maybe they're already outside?"

Snape raised an eyebrow and with a wave of his wand opened the door behind which was only an empty dark corridor.

"Do hurry up Miss Dursley, I don't have all evening," he sneered and she hurried to follow him outside.

Despite her hopes they didn't meet the boys on the way so she suffered in silence the whole way.

He left her in front of the portrait without a word, sweeping away down the corridor with a swish of his robes.

Jasmine got to experience first hand what it was like when Harry suddenly became more famous than he was before. Everywhere he went the crowds parted and whispers and stares followed him.

Jasmine thought it was ridiculous that anyone thought Harry could be attacking Muggleborns and she did a lot of accidental foot stomping whenever anyone said anything too scathing.

Fred and George helped in their way by walking in front of Harry in the hallways and shouting things like: "make way, make way for the heir of Slytherin!", "Harry's in a hurry, seriously evil wizard coming through."

It cracked up Jasmine every time she heard them which in turn only encouraged them to keep it up. Harry also seemed cheered up by it at least until they started throwing garlic at him.

Jasmine was both dreading and looking forward to the end of the term. On the one hand it would be nice to have the common room to themselves, only Harry, the Weasleys and Hermione were staying for the holidays. She would miss Neville, Luna and Lee though and she was worried that when things quietened down she might be overcome by homesickness which she had been holding at bay.

The end of the term also marked the end of her detention with Snape. She swore to herself that she would never ever get another detention with Snape because the man was the devil himself when it came to thinking of horrible tasks.

"I'll write to you everyday. I wish I was staying too. Maybe I can still ask Professor Flitwick," Luna said tearfully as they hugged in the Entrance Hall. It was the first morning of the holidays and the students leaving for home were milling around waiting for the carriages to take them to the station. Jasmine and Luna had eaten breakfast together and now neither wanted to say goodbye.

"No, don't be silly. Your father would miss you dreadfully. Besides it's only a few days and then you'll be back."

Jasmine sniffed and hugged Luna one last time. Neville stood beside them, twisting his fingers awkwardly as he watched their goodbye.

"Happy Christmas Neville, the common room won't be the same without you." Jasmine hugged him too and he returned the hug just as hard.

"Happy Christmas Jasmine, I'll write to you as well," said Neville smiling at the two girls, "you too, Luna."

Jasmine watched as Luna and Neville walked through the door and down the sweeping steps of Hogwarts towards the horseless carriages.


	17. Chapter 17

The first few days were spent relaxing in the common room, playing exploding snap, wizard's chess, roasting anything they could find on the fire and in Jasmine, Fred and George's case roaming around the castle with frequent visits to the kitchens.

Jasmine often checked the girl's bathroom where Hermione, Ron and Harry were spending a lot of time perfecting their potion. She was still a little annoyed that Harry was refusing to let her take some of the potion. What Harry didn't know was that Jasmine had a hair of Astoria Greengrass safely stored in a vial which was tucked in her bedside table drawer. She would simply wait until the other three had gone and then join them in the common room. She had done her research and knew that Astoria was meant to go home for the holidays but she was planning to use the same excuse as Hermione with Millicent Bulstrode. She also knew, thanks to her friendship with the Weasley twins, where the Slytherin common room entrance was, which would save her a lot of time.

On Christmas morning Jasmine woke slowly with that heavy satiated feeling of a long sleep and the promise of a lazy day stretching out ahead of her.

She sat up to see that Ginny was just waking up too.

"Morning," she said, sending the red-head a tentative smile. Since the holidays had started, Ginny had started spending more time with them again and Jasmine was glad.

"Good morning. Happy Christmas!"

Those two words caused Jasmine's stomach to clench tightly. Her first Christmas away from her family. She wondered if they were up yet, and whether Dudley had already opened his mountain of presents? Was her mother preparing their traditional breakfast?

She blinked back to reality and saw Ginny's faltering smile.

"Happy Christmas Ginny," she replied as sincerely as she could and then gasped when she looked at the small pile of presents heaped at the foot of her bed.

Ginny was tearing the wrapping paper off her first present while Jasmine was still examining hers, holding each one carefully in her hand, getting the weight and feel of it.

She opened one and recognised that it must be from Hagrid judging by the handwriting on the gift tag. It was a beautiful quill and the note from Hagrid said that it belonged to a Hippogriff. Jasmine was over the moon, she had developed a bit of a soft spot for the magical beasts which she had read about in Newt Scamander's books. Hagrid was only too happy to tell her all about the different magical creatures whenever she visited for tea.

There was a huge lump in her throat when she opened the thick navy knit sweater with a big white J on it from Mrs. Weasley and a box of homemade shortbread.

Ginny blushed scarlet when Jasmine told her that she had the best mum.

She got a dozen chocolate frogs from Neville and Luna gave her a homemade dream-catcher which had been spelled to ward off dream demons ( _Don't worry - Dad performed the spell_ said the note Luna had written).

Fred, George and Lee had given her a music box that played five different pieces of music. She was really touched as she had only mentioned in passing how much she missed dancing and it must have taken quite a bit of effort to charm the music box.

Sarah had sent her the next book in a series she had been reading before she had left for Hogwarts and Jasmine squealed with excitement. She could hardly wait to start reading it.

That left one card and one parcel at the foot of the bed and Jasmine felt sick looking at them. What if the card just said an impersonal "Happy Christmas" and there were socks in the parcel?

With shaking fingers she took the envelope and Ginny's exclamations faded into the background.

She pulled out the card and flipped it open.

 _Dear Jasmine,_

 _We wish you a happy and blessed Christmas Day. We hope that you spend it with Harry and your friends and that next year you'll be back with us. We certainly won't be going skiing again. Frankly, this trip has been a disaster and Dudley fractured his ankle while snowboarding._

 _As you're reading this, I'm probably already in the kitchen preparing Christmas Dinner, lord knows that I have to make extra because your aunt Marge is here._

 _Again, Merry Christmas and I'll write again before the New Year._

 _Love, Mum, Dad and Dudley_

Jasmine was almost in tears again. It took every ounce of her willpower to fight back the tears, but this time they were happy tears because in her family's own convoluted way that had been an apology and they said that they wanted her to be home for Christmas next year and that they missed her.

She was still upset and hurt by what had happened this Christmas but she desperately hoped that this was a step in the right direction.

"Are you ready?"

"Huh?"

"Don't you want to go to the others?" Ginny raised one eyebrow.

"Yeah sure. Wait! I just need to put on my jumper," said Jasmine and pulled it over her head.

The present from her family remained unopened on the covers forgotten for the moment.

Even though Jasmine had wanted to go and find Harry straight away she ended up being dragged into the twins dorm by Ginny where the boys had just started to open their pile of presents.

"Cheers Jasmine," said Fred and he held up the lockpick kit and giant bag of fun-size chocolate bars.

"You're welcome. I wanted to thank you guys for my present as well. I love it."

"That's what we were going for," George winked at her and then whooped when he opened his present from Jasmine.

She had gotten Sarah to buy their gifts and now George was holding a box titled "Magic for Beginners" in his hands. He had thought it was hilarious when Jasmine told him about the tricks Muggle magicians did and it hadn't been difficult to pick his present.

He opened the box and the various magic trick items spilled out onto the bed and all of the Weasleys leaned over to inspect them further.

"I'm going to wish Harry Happy Christmas, I'll see you at breakfast," Jasmine said but the others were so absorbed they didn't respond.

The five Weasleys, Harry, Hermione and Jasmine all sat together for breakfast wearing matching Weasley jumpers which made more than one teacher smile to themselves. They also breathed a sigh of relief when the rambunctious group departed for their common room again. It was soon decided that there was to be a rematch of yesterday's snowball fight which according to George had been rigged. Jasmine who had been on his team was inclined to agree with him. They even managed to drag out Percy to make the numbers even.

Ginny joined with the twins and Jasmine while Percy pompously strode over to Harry, Ron and Hermione.

When they came back inside they were dripping wet, frozen solid but laughing uproariously and for the first time all holidays Jasmine realised that as much as she missed her family she had found a new one at Hogwarts too.

"Are you ready?"

Jasmine startled slightly before straightening up and patting her pocket self-consciously.

"Sure. Let's go."

The girls made their way downstairs in companionable silence and joined the others for dinner.

Jasmine had struggled for an age whether she should tell Fred and George about the Polyjuice Potion and in the end she had. Fred had whistled through his teeth and called the plan ambitious but risky. George had simply shaken his head.

"I would have thought you guys would want to come," she said, taken-aback.

"If we had thought of it, then maybe, but it sounds like our baby brother, Harry and Hermione have it covered. Why take the risk for nothing at all."

"Hmm, are you sure you guys shouldn't be in Slytherin?" teased Jasmine.

They both gasped in outrage and Jasmine started to laugh as they chased her down the corridor to the common room.

When Hermione left the table, Jasmine gave the twins a meaningful look and they winked back at her as she followed Hermione out of the Great Hall.

They walked in tense silence to the girl's bathroom.

"The potion is perfect, it will work," said Hermione, as she opened the door.

"If anyone can brew this at Hogwarts apart from Snape, it's you," Jasmine agreed easily.

Hermione blushed lightly and she gave an awkward little laugh.

"But you helped loads too."

"Nonsense, I only did what you told me to do."

"More than Ron or Harry did to be honest."

They both giggled at that and the earlier tension was broken.

Jasmine watched as Hermione did the finishing touches on the potion and was feeling her nerves rise as she thought about what Harry and Ron were doing.

Fortunately, the plan went off without a hitch and the boys appeared minutes later.

Harry was still worried that Jasmine was going to try to come with them so he watched her very carefully. The only consolation he had was that she had no easy access to any Slytherins but he knew how resourceful she could be. He resolved to pour the rest of the potion down the toilet before he left for Slytherin.

All of Jasmine's carefully laid plans went to waste when Hermione refused to go with the boys in turn preventing Jasmine from drinking her potion.

"Hermione, what happened?" she asked, desperately knocking on the door of the cubicle.

"No... I can't... come out…. I look…. I look... horrendous," Hermione eventually managed to gasp out between sobs

"It can't be that bad. At least tell me what happened even if you don't want to show me. It can't have been the potion, it worked perfectly on Harry and Ron, so what is it?"

"I...I can't...it's too embarrassing!"

Hermione continued to sob and Jasmine's alarm increased by the second.

"Hermione, please open the door. I'm sure whatever it is can be fixed. Please, I'm your friend Hermione I want to help you."

The sobs grew louder for a few seconds but then Jasmine heard the sound of the lock being pulled back yet the door stayed closed.

"I, I didn't get Millicent Bullstrode's hair. I didn't get a human hair."

Jasmine gasped, Polyjuice Potion was strictly for human transformation.

"It must have been a cathair on her robes," Hermione said quietly, as she slowly opened the door and Jasmine gasped again.

"See, it's terrible," wailed Hermione and slammed the door shut.

"NO, I'm sorry. It was just the shock. It actually looks kind of cute…" argued Jasmine and took a step back when Hermione threw the door open and glared at her. She could have sworn there was some hissing but she didn't want to anger her any further.

"Sorry, look I'm sure that Madam Pomfrey will be able to fix you right away. Let's go to her right now."

"No, we can't. Not until Harry and Ron are back at least. She'll know immediately what happened and if they're not with me she'll know that they're off pretending to be different people."

"Ok, well then we'll just wait here until they get back."

The hour seemed endless especially once Myrtle had seen Hermione's transformation and spent the next ten minutes howling with laughter right in Hermione's furry face causing her whiskers to quiver. Hermione locked herself in the cubicle again but Myrtle was relentless in her teasing.

Any sympathy Jasmine might have had for Myrtle had completely disappeared by the time Ron and Harry stumbled back into the bathroom.

It was decided that Jasmine should go back to the common room while the boys brought Hermione to the Hospital Wing.

Ginny had fallen asleep in front of the fire and Percy had disappeared yet again so Jasmine was free to tell the boys everything that had happened.

"Madam Pomfrey is good like that though, she won't get them into trouble," assured Fred and George only nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, Madam Pomfrey is sound. She'll keep their secret. She didn't tell anyone that Ron had a dragon bite so I'm sure she won't tell anyone about the potion either. Though I reckon most of the teachers will be able to put two and two together."

"I suppose it doesn't matter anymore. After all, the boys already managed to get into Slytherin. Although we should probably get rid of all the stuff in the bathroom."

"Yes, we'll go right now," said Fred, him and George jumping to action right away and twenty minutes later no one would ever be able to tell that the girl's bathroom had ever been used as anything else other than a bathroom.


	18. Chapter 18

A/N: Ooops sorry my bad for the wait. I do solemnly swear that I am trying my best to get these edited and published but life tends to get in the way. Come and say hi in the comments :)

Jasmine's Christmas present from her family was still lying at the foot of her bed when she went to bed that evening.

She smiled through a yawn when she spotted it and sat on her bed, grabbing it. It was hard, rectangular and kind of bumpy. She spent a few moments trying to guess what it was, going so far to sniff the wrapping paper but there was no scent to give it away. Finally, she tore open the paper and gasped in delight as a picture frame covered in shells fell into her lap. Inside was a photograph of one of the happiest memories Jasmine had from her past life.

It had been taken the Summer of that year at the end of her ballet camp. She had been one of the principal dancers in the camp's rendition of the Nutcracker and her family had come to watch her performance. The picture showed her with a big bouquet of red roses surrounded by a beaming Petunia, a gruffly pleased Vernon and Dudley. Jasmine traced a finger over her own face, it was practically glowing and it made her smile again, this time slightly wistful. Would she ever have that easy relationship with her family again?

She carefully placed the picture on her nightstand and got up to get ready for bed. Poor Hermione, she thought, studying her own features in the mirror while she brushed her teeth trying to imagine herself with fur and whiskers.

Ginny had not come upstairs yet so Jasmine turned off the light and cuddled under the covers, the fire crackling merrily in the background. It had been a good Christmas, a lot better than she had expected.

She met the twins in the common room the next morning and they headed down to breakfast. They were exceptionally quiet and Jasmine soon found out the reason behind their subdued mood.

"Dad got fined at work for the flying car," Fred finally said, as he viciously speared a piece of sausage.

"Oh no," said Jasmine.

"Yes! But he was lucky, it could have been a lot worse. Considering the fact that multiple Muggles saw the flying car he could have ended up in Azkaban," said George.

"What's Azkaban?" she asked.

"It's wizard prison," said Fred grimly, "it's the worst place in the world."

"Anyone who goes in there loses their mind," added George darkly.

Fred nodded and Jasmine shuddered.

"Why? What makes it so bad?" she asked again.

"The guards, they're called Dementors and they're not human beings."

This time it was Fred who shuddered.

"They're foul creatures who feed off of despair, anger and fear. I've seen pictures, they're just big cloaked figures. You can't see their faces."

George's explanation caused a shiver to run up Jasmine's spine, they sounded horrid.

"And the highest form of punishment in our law is the kiss."

Jasmine just gaped at him in wordless confusion.

"The dementors have some sort of suction device within their hood and then they clamp it over the person's mouth and suck out their soul."

Jasmine visibly paled and pushed her half-eaten plate of toast away.

"So… they die?" Her voice was trembling.

"No. Worse. They're just a shell afterwards. Everything that made them who they were and unique is gone."

They didn't talk much for the rest of breakfast, each of them lost in their own thoughts and by the time the others arrived for breakfast they were heading back to the common room.

"Let's do something fun today," suggested Jasmine, the glum looks on the twin's faces was disturbing her.

George perked up immediately.

"And I know just the thing," he said, nudging Fred and giving him a meaningful look.

A look of comprehension dawned on his brother's face and Jasmine was glad to see the beginnings of a grin that quickly grew into a cheshire cat grin.

"But of course brother dear, brother mine. Jasmine we know just the thing."

"Where are we going?" asked Jasmine curiously as she ambled along behind them because the twins were both taller than her and had started to walk faster.

"Come, we have no time to lose," called Fred dramatically but they did slow down to let her catch up.

They went to the Common Room where Fred grabbed an old piece of folded parchment from his bedside table and told Jasmine to put on outside clothes.

Giddy with excitement Jasmine skipped up to her room where Ginny was still slumbering peacefully.

"Now, you are about to pass the final hurdle to become a true marauder," said Fred solemnly, him and George bowing deeply when she joined them in the common room.

"Huh?" said Jasmine and her face scrunched into a frown.

"What's a marauder?"

"What's a marauder, she asks," gasps George in mock outrage. Fred clutches his hands to his chest and sighs dramatically.

"We are marauders Jasmine, we are. Fred, Lee and I and soon you will be too," said George very solemnly.

"Okaaaaaaaaay," said Jasmine slowly. They were looking at her with barely contained glee.

"This parchment is a map. A map that holds the key to our success," explained Fred and spread it onto one of the tables. He pointed his wand at it and said, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Jasmine gasped and took an involuntary step forward to get a closer look at the map. Fine lines of ink were drawing out in every direction from Fred's wand. She watched them take shape hardly daring to breathe.

It was a map. A map of Hogwarts and its grounds. Suddenly a lot of things about the twins and Lee started to make sense. How they always managed to sneak around the castle being one of them or how they found the kitchen.

Although she mused that they would probably have found a way to do both even without the map.

"It's amazing," she breathed, watching the little dots with people's names wander around the castle. Harry, Ron and Hermione were all in the Great Hall, whereas Ginny's dot was immobile in the girl's 1st year dormitory.

"It is!" The twins nodded emphatically.

Jasmine read the green letters at the top of the map:

 _Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs_

 _Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers_

 _are proud to present_

 _THE MARAUDER'S MAP_

"These brave and noble past students have opened a whole world of opportunities for us and we thank them every day by causing as much magical mischief as we possibly can," said Fred and George took a deep bow.

"You will be leaving the hallowed grounds of Hogwarts to go on an adventure above and beyond to the magical place we call Hogsmeade."

"Ooohhh," squealed Jasmine, clapping her hands together once and bouncing on her feet.

"Yes, I can hardly wait."

The twins and Lee had told her plenty of stories about the wizarding village and she could hardly wait to see everything with her own eyes. She had already tried a lot of Honeydukes sweets from what the boys had brought back from their days out.

After consulting the map they set off to the one-eyed witch statue on the third floor corridor and the boys told her the password "Dissendium".

"Merlin, we haven't been through here in a while," said George, swiping his wand in a wide movement to get the spider webs out of the way. Fred and Jasmine held their lit up wands up high so he could see what he was doing.

"Sneaking out isn't half as fun when you're actually allowed to go," mused Fred and then chortled, "good thing you came along Jasmine. Now it's fun again."

Jasmine snorted but didn't reply as she followed him along the dark and narrow passageway.

It seemed like an age before they were finally standing in the cellar of Honeydukes and they were brushing dust and cobwebs off their robes.

"It's a good thing it's the holidays, nobody will notice that we're not supposed to be here." George led the way up the stairs and the two boys watched with amusement as Jasmine stood dumbfounded in the shop and then like a whirlwind was gone inspecting everything Honeydukes had to offer.

Jasmine wished she had six more pairs of eyes just so that she would be able to take everything in.

There were mouth-watering sweets and treats on display in every nook and cranny of the shop. Once Jasmine had enough of looking, she bought a small selection of items from the money Harry had given her at the start of the term in case she ever needed any wizarding money.

Then they left Honeydukes and were enveloped by the sharp coldness outside. The weather didn't dampen their spirits in the least and they talked and laughed as Fred and George showed her everything there was to see in Hogsmeade, all the while greeting their fellow students cheerfully.

George had been right, nobody thought twice about seeing them here as the village was teeming with other students and their families.

They rounded off their day trip in The Three Broomsticks were Jasmine had her first Butterbeer and then another because one just wasn't enough.

"We'd better get back. Honeydukes will be closing soon," warned George and Jasmine nodded setting down her empty glass.

"I don't want to leave," she said sadly and Fred elbowed her lightly.

"We can come back anytime. Promise, we'll go as often as you want."

Feeling appeased Jasmine smiled and suppressed a yawn.

"Where have you been all day?" Harry asked suspiciously later that evening when they had all gathered in the common room again.

"Oh you know...around," said Jasmine airily and prayed that none of the chocolate fizz clusters would fall out of her pocket.

"I thought you might have gone to visit Hermione," he said and Jasmine immediately felt guilty for not visiting her.

"How is she? Is she back to normal?"

"Not yet, did you know that she purrs? Just like a real cat," said Ron, in wonder but a grin tugged at his lips.

Jasmine woke up in a cold sweat that night. Images of hulking, cloaked figures drawing ever closer impossible to banish in the dark, so she lay with her wand lit up and looked at the photograph on her nightstand.

Jasmine visited Hermione the following day and was happy to see that Hermione was slightly more cheerful than at the beginning.

"See my whiskers are shorter," she had said eagerly and Jasmine, who hadn't been able to see a difference, had nodded politely.

The rest of the holidays were spent much the same way roaming around Hogwarts and Hogsmeade with Fred and George, visiting Hermione and spending lots of time in front of the fire in the common room.


	19. Chapter 19

A/N: ok so here is the plan - I'm far enough ahead that I'll be able to upload 2 chapters every weekend. So my upload schedule is now Saturdays and Sundays. And it looks like there'll be 25 chapters in total.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Too soon school started again and Hogwarts was once more awash with students and their lively chatter. The break had eased everyone's nerves and the atmosphere was lighter again. Jasmine was overjoyed to be reunited with Luna and Neville again.

Jasmine was inundated with questions about Hermione's well-being once people had figured out that she was one of the few who had visitation rights but she never said a word and the twins always made sure to change the conversation.

"Thanks for the company, I really appreciate you coming to visit too," Hermione said brightly one evening, three weeks after lessons had started again.

"That's ok," replied Jasmine, she had taken to doing her homework twice a week in the hospital wing. It had the added bonus of having Hermione there to ask questions.

"Guess what I got today?" asked Hermione, splotches of pink colouring her cheeks and her voice turned abnormally high?

"What?" Jasmine's curiosity was roused.

Hermione whipped a card out from under her pillow which was adorned with gold flowers and "Get well soon" in sweeping embossed golden letters.

"It's from Professor Lockhart," she explained, a dreamy faraway gaze in her eyes.

Jasmine who didn't particularly like Lockhart recognised that this was not the moment to tell Hermione that so she smiled and said how it was a nice gesture.

Hermione just sighed happily and read out the inside before tenderly slipping it back underneath her pillow.

Jasmine hoped for her sake that neither Ron or Harry found out about the card.

Later that same evening Harry and Ron returned to Gryffindor Tower with wet feet and the bottom of their robes soaked through.

Jasmine watched for a minute or two while Ron hopelessly tried to dry them with his smouldering wand before she dried them for him.

"Cheers Jasmine," he grinned and Harry sat down as well.

"Guess what we found?"

"Judging by the state of your robes, I'm going to guess a puddle," Jasmine responded dryly and Harry stuck out his tongue.

"On the way back from the Hospital Wing we heard Filch cursing and then saw that the girl's bathroom was flooded again so we went in when no one was looking and we found Myrtle having a tantrum."

"What's new?" yawned Jasmine. Neville looked between them in confusion.

"Who's Myrtle?"

"She's the ghost who lives in the girl's bathroom, just outside where Mrs. Norris was found," explained Ron and Neville nodded, his expression still bemused.

"Anyhow," Harry directed the conversation back on topic, "she was so upset because someone tried to flush this…"

He brandished a battered, dripping wet notebook into the air, drops of water flying everywhere.

"Ugh, gross was that in a toilet?" shrieked Jasmine, jumping back from the table knocking over her chair.

"Yes, but don't you think it's interesting that someone tried to get rid of it?"

"Stop waving it around you dolt," Jasmine ordered before she sat back down.

"It's only interesting if there's something in it," she added and Harry showed her the empty pages.

"Why would someone throw away an empty notebook," she mused, curious despite herself.

"Maybe there's something hidden in it," suggested Neville, "are you sure it's safe Harry?"

Ron gave Harry a meaningful look but said nothing as Harry tried to assure Neville of the notebook's safety.

"Why wouldn't it be safe?" asked Jasmine, who still hadn't touched the notebook but would prefer to be sure while Harry was holding it.

Neville and Ron proceeded to explain to Jasmine all the dangers of strange magical objects giving plentiful examples.

The more she heard, the more unsettled Jasmine became and by the end of the conversation she wanted Harry to get rid of the diary or at least stop touching it.

"It's fine," he said impatiently.

"The owner won an award for special services to the school, he would hardly put a curse on his diary."

Seeing Jasmine's skeptical face he decided to keep his theory to himself for now. Maybe she would be swayed when she saw that it was perfectly safe.

The first week of February was the first week in months that was dry and there were short stretches of sunshine. The mood in the castle brightened even further and Jasmine was glad when Hermione was able to leave the Hospital Wing.

Harry was also glad that Hermione was back especially as her enthusiasm for the diary seemed to wipe away all of Jasmine's doubts. They discussed it until late at night and Jasmine dreamt of diaries and darkness waking up with a feeling of dread in her stomach. She told Luna all about it over breakfast and in turn Luna told her about the adventures involving snarglepuffs and thunderbirds. Jasmine thought it sounded rather charming and then told Luna all about the diary and the award that they wanted to look at later.

"He's even more unbearable lately," Luna said, wrinkling her nose in disgust after they had listened to Lockhart talk for 45 minutes how he had vanquished the monster of the Chamber of Secrets. They were meant to write an essay about his wondrous feat and compare it to any other heroic act of their choice chosen from one of his books.

The girls were dreading it already. However, Jasmine had another problem, one that only concerned her but was weighing her down. She had received a postcard and a letter in the past month from Sarah and her frustration at not being able to write back peaked in the first week of February.

"It's so stupid! I have to lie to my best friend, I don't even know what to write in my letters anymore. It just all sounds so fake and generic. We used to tell each other everything."

Harry watched her pace around his dormitory like a caged tiger. Since the room was rather small, she could only walk six paces or so before she did a dramatic spin, her hair flying out and her robes swishing, as she turned in the other direction.

"I know," said Harry and wished not for the first time that there was something he could do.

Harry's face broke into a smile causing Jasmine to stop in her tracks.

"I have an idea. I mean it won't solve the problem but maybe it will make you feel better."

"Well…" Jasmine gestured impatiently and he just smiled at her before she huffed and he chuckled.

"Just write the letter you would like to write to her. Telling her all about Hogwarts and your life here and don't send it. Maybe if you get it all out on paper it might make you feel better."

"I'm not sure that'll help," she responded glumly, "but at this point I'll give it a go."

Which is how she found herself in the library the following day alone and armed with a Muggle refill pad and pen.

"Here goes," she mumbled and then gazed at the blank paper for a long time. After several minutes she wrote her address, the date and salutation and then she sat staring into the distance the pen poised on the page.

 _The Library_

 _Hogwarts_

 _Scotland_

 _5th of February_

 _Dearest Sarah,_

 _I have absolutely no idea how to start this. And it seems like a silly idea if you consider the fact that I can never send this to you and you'll never read it. What's the point, huh?_

 _I suppose the first thing you should know is that I'm a witch. I know it sounds mad but I really am. Harry is a wizard, both his parents were magic so I'm guessing that's where I got my magic from but then again some people just are magic even if no one else in their family is. By the way we call non-magic people Muggles. I so desperately want to tell you everything but I can't because it's against wizarding law. I could get expelled if anyone found out that I told you. You see witches and wizards are afraid that they would be hounded and hunted like in the olden days if the rest of the world found out about their existence._

 _So yes, I'm a witch and no I'm not attending some posh boarding school for nerds (as you like to call it) but a wizarding boarding school called Hogwarts._

 _And it's amazing here. You would love it._

 _It's an old castle and there are moving staircases and secret passages and the paintings can move about and talk. It's so hard to describe if you haven't seen it yourself. All the students are split into four houses called Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. I'm in Gryffindor and you get sorted into your houses by a talking hat._

Jasmine wrote for a solid hour and a half and then dropped her pen giving a big sigh and leaning back in her chair. She rotated her tired wrist and then flicked through the four pages covered back to front. She folded them up and put them in an envelope, she even went as far as to neatly write Sarah's address on the front then she slipped it in her book bag and started to write another letter to Sarah, this one, the version she could send. Harry had been right, for some inexplicable reason it was easier to write the second letter.


	20. Chapter 20

When Jasmine walked into the Great Hall on the morning of Valentine's Day she took an involuntary step back and stepped into Fred.

"Oof," grunted Fred but he didn't need to ask what had happened when he stepped into the Great Hall after her.

"Merlin," breathed George horrified, standing next to Fred.

"Who?" gasped Lee and all four of them looked up to the teacher's table.

Snape was glaring murderously at his plate, McGonagall's face was twisted in a pained grimace and Lockhart was beaming jauntily at everyone, blowing air-kisses, winking and waving.

"Who else," said Fred resigned and the four of them trudged over to the table to join Harry, Ron and Hermione. Jasmine spent most of her breakfast shaking confetti off her toast.

Jasmine almost choked on her orange juice during Lockhart's speech when Fred wiggled his eyebrows at her.

Harry thumped her on the back and she desperately tried to inhale some air while also struggling to get out of Harry's reach.

The day didn't improve from there, after breakfast she met up with Luna who told her that some second year Ravenclaws had taken her favourite purple scarf and kept taunting her.

"No don't go after them, it'll only make it worse," she begged Jasmine, who had immediately turned to go back into the Great Hall.

"If you ignore them, they'll stop. They just want to get a reaction from me," Luna said wisely but Jasmine privately disagreed.

"Fine! I promise I won't go after them now," she said and Luna let her go.

Jasmine brushed out her robes and seethed in silence. She couldn't understand how anyone could tease Luna, who was without a doubt the nicest person she had ever met.

"Who took it?"

"Zacharias Smith," Jasmine nodded grimly.

"I'm serious Jasmine, please don't confront him," begged Luna.

"Alright, I promise Luna. I won't."

With that promise the two girls entered Defence Against the Dark Arts where Lockhart returned their tests from the week before.

Jasmine glanced down at hers to see a big FAIL written across it in red ink. She sighed and stuffed it into her book bag ready to be bored out of her mind.

The cupid goblin's only interrupted their class once and handed a Valentine to Romilda Vane who giggled and blushed bright pink.

"Wonder who that was from?" whispered Luna and Jasmine shrugged, she wasn't particularly close to her Gryffindor housemate.

They visited Hagrid during break and had tea and biscuits while they took turns to give Fang ear scritches.

It all came to a head while they were waiting outside of Transfiguration and Zacharias walked by with a group of friends who were all jeering and calling out taunts to Luna.

Luna ducked her head and shuffled her feet.

"Give back her scarf, Zacharias," said Jasmine leaning against the wall.

"Or what Dursley?" he jeered and his friends all laughed.

"You'll see," she replied ignoring them crowding around her and people gathering to watch.

"Ohh I'm so scared. Will you run off and tell the Weasley? Or Potter?"

Jasmine didn't speak she just continued to stare at him and raised one brow.

"Cat got your tongue? Can't you speak? Are you dumb? Seems the two of you are the perfect pair."

"Are you going to give the scarf back or not?" Jasmine was trying to sound bored, but was horrified to hear it come out shaky.

Zacharias laughed when he heard it.

"I don't think I will," he said and took a few steps back still waving the scarf at them.

"Expelliarmus," bellowed Jasmine, who had whipped out her wand. All her pent up rage went into the spell there was a huge commotion in the corridor when Zacharias went flying backwards knocking over two of his friends while the scarf gently fluttered to the ground.

Some people shouted, others laughed and all of them were pushing closer to see what had happened.

Jasmine leapt forward to pick up the scarf before the crowd trampled on it and had just handed it to Luna when a silence descended.

"Miss Dursley, may I remind you that magic is strictly forbidden in the corridors as is attacking your fellow students."

"But Professor, he had Luna's scarf," argued Jasmine hotly.

The other students collectively gasped as Snape seemed to grow four inches in height.

"Be that as it may, it is against the school rules. And now you have talked back to me. 50 points from Gryffindor and detention for a week - with me."

Jasmine inhaled sharply and opened her mouth, the others waited breathlessly whether she would dare to argue further. Luna could see her face quivering but then she let out the breath and took a step back.

"Yes, sir," she said.

"Smith, you have one week of detention with Mr. Filch," added Snape smoothly.

"Yes sir," Smith didn't bother to argue.

"The potions lab at 7pm sharp," said Snape and Jasmine nodded. She didn't hear a word of her class, scowling down at her quill and gritting her teeth at the thought of detention.

Luna could feel the anger and tension rolling off Jasmine in waves and she took extra care with her notes so she would be able to give them to Jasmine. She kept on stealing glances at Jasmine to see if her anger was directed at her too, after all she had been standing up for her. She sighed and berated herself for not stepping in and speaking up, maybe then Jasmine wouldn't have cast the spell.

"Unbelievable I can't believe I have detention again," groaned Jasmine and George patted her on the back in consolation. They had brought their lunch out to the courtyard as the lurid pink walls of the Great Hall had a rather claustrophobic effect after a while. They weren't the only ones who thought so as there were more people than usual milling about.

"George Weasley? George Weasley!" shouted an angry looking goblin, his golden wings hanging off to one side, and stomped across the courtyard. George looked up with wide eyes and his mouth forgetting to close.

"Yes…" he said hesitantly.

"Valentine for you," said the goblin gruffly and handed George a red envelope that matched the colour of his face as the students watching wooped and catcalled.

"Thanks." George took the proffered envelope and the goblin checked his bag and pulled out a blue envelope, "Fred Weasley," he roared.

"Here," Fred ducked his head as he took the envelope and peaked at Jasmine who was watching in amusement.

"Well go on, open them," she encouraged once the goblin had stormed off.

She watched as they tentatively opened their envelopes and read their cards.

"It's from Angelina," said Fred and twisted around to see if he could spot her. Jasmine was still watching George who was mouthing the words silently still reading the card.

"It doesn't say who it's from," George said, his brow creasing, holding out the card for the two of them to see.

 _Dear George,_

 _You make me smile everyday. I'm so happy that you exist and are in my life._

 _Your secret Valentine_

"Ohhh, you have a secret admirer," teased Fred and George elbowed him.

"Shut up, who do you think it's from?"

"No idea, don't you recognise the handwriting?"

"What's going on?" Lee Jordan had just joined the group.

"George has a secret admirer," said Fred gleefully and George elbowed him again, this time harder.

"Ow," complained Fred rubbing his side.

"I don't recognise the handwriting, any of you?"

Lee read the card and shrugged just like Jasmine and Fred.

"To be honest I don't really pay attention to other people's handwriting," admitted Jasmine. "I can only say that it's not any of ours, Luna's, Neville's, Harry's, or Hermione's."

"Very helpful," said George in a deadpan voice.

"It must be someone you know, maybe Katie or Alicia or Angelina, you do spend a good amount of time with them," suggested Lee.

"It can't be Angelina," said Fred, puffing out his chest, "because she sent a card to me."

Jasmine and Lee rolled their eyes but George stared at the card again.

Jasmine went straight down to the dungeons after dinner accompanied by Luna.

"Is everything alright? You've been so quiet," asked Jasmine who had spent dinner at the Ravenclaw table telling Luna all about the Valentine's escapades that had taken place that day.

She was torn on the topic of Harry's Valentine because on the one hand she thought it was hilarious but on the other side she saw Harry's embarrassment and Ginny's humiliation. She had searched high and low for Ginny, who had disappeared straight after class and hadn't been at dinner either.

"I'm really sorry," said Luna suddenly and Jasmine looked at her in confusion.

"For what?"

"That you have detention now. If I had stuck up for myself it wouldn't have happened," said Luna quietly.

"Don't be daft," replied Jasmine. "I have detention because I used magic in the corridor or should I say because I got caught. Besides friends stick up for each other," she added and Luna felt the tightness in her chest ease.

"Ok, thank you again. The scarf used to be my mum's so it's really special to me."

Jasmine smiled as she said goodbye to Luna and thought that this week of detention was totally worth it as Luna had gotten her scarf back.

She was in no way surprised when she had to dissect a full barrel of rats for potion ingredients for her detention and after valiantly fighting her gag reflex she started to work in silence.

All the while she was thinking about the pile of homework that was waiting for her. She needed to write out the correct answers for Lockhart's test five times for the following day and while she had learned the duplication charm after the second test from Lockhart it still took quite a while to write out the first set of answers.

"Another fail," drawled Snape, "dear me, Miss Dursley, that won't do at all. How disappointing"

He had walked over to inspect her work on the rats and had spotted the parchment sticking out of her bag.

Jasmine didn't dare scoff so she kept her head down and separated the spleen from the rat and threw it into the provided container.

As he didn't get a response Snape picked it out of the bag and read through the questions and was close to setting it on fire.

Had Dumbledore not had a serious chat with Lockhart about his syllabus and exam questions? How were they still so moronic?

"Describe in detail the outfit Gilderoy Lockhart was wearing while defeating the WagaWaga Werewolf?"

"In your opinion what is Gilderoy Lockhart's greatest achievement to date?"

And so it went on for two pages. Jasmine had done abysmally again although in this case Snape thought it would have been worse if she had done well. He placed it silently on the desk and walked to the store cupboard to take stock of his supplies. He would need to have another chat with the headmaster.


	21. Chapter 21

Snape escorted Jasmine back to Gryffindor Tower and she wondered whether he regretted giving her detention because it meant that he would need to walk her back every evening.

Back in the common room Ron told her that Harry had gone to bed, so she joined Neville at their usual table and started on her homework. She almost cried with relief when Neville offered to let her copy the right answers to Lockhart's test and she was done a lot quicker than initially expected.

Once they were done their homework Neville joined the group sitting around the fire, they were enjoying Fred and George's finest renditions of Harry's Valentine song but Jasmine wanted to see if Ginny was back yet.

To her immense relief she saw that the curtains had been drawn around Ginny's bed.

"Hullo Ginny," she said quietly and gently tapped the curtain causing the fabric to ripple slightly.

"Are you alright?" She was met with silence. "If you want to talk about it, I'm here for you."

When there was no response she turned around and went back down to join the others.

"Ugh stop it," she cried when Harry dragged her by the arm as soon as she descended the stairs.

"What the hell," she pulled back her arm and squinted her bleary eyes at him.

He chuckled but the laugh didn't reach his eyes, "I have something really important to tell you. I know who opened the Chamber last time."

"But how do you know the diary is telling you the truth?" argued Jasmine who refused to believe that Hagrid was the culprit.

"Why would it lie? Besides it can't lie, they're literally old memories so they have to be true. They can't be altered, it's like a historical document."

Jasmine narrowed her eyes, "I don't know Harry. Remember what Neville and Ron said about magical objects. They can be dangerous. How can you believe some stranger over Hagrid who has been nothing but kind to you."

"I'm not saying Hagrid did it on purpose," snapped Harry, his temper rising.

"He probably just wanted to see the monster or take care of it and then it escaped and attacked all the people. Maybe Hagrid didn't even know it was attacking people."

"But how can Hagrid be the heir of Slytherin?" Jasmine shook her head, "he was in Gryffindor when he was at school."

Harry was briefly silent.

"But why would Tom have gotten that award for Special Services to the School and why did the attacks stop once Hagrid got expelled?

"I don't know, I just don't believe Hagrid was responsible," replied Jasmine in a tone that Harry knew to be obstinate and final. Nothing apart from Hagrid himself admitting that he had opened the Chamber of Secrets would convince her otherwise. He heaved a sigh and let the subject drop. At least Ron and Hermione believed him.

"The attacks seem to have stopped now anyway, there's no need to bring it all up again," he said and Jasmine seemed appeased by that.

Luna was just as disbelieving as Jasmine while the twins and Lee thought along the same line as Harry that it had all been an unhappy accident.

Hagrid remained blissfully unaware of their debates and happily greeted Jasmine and Luna whenever they popped in for a visit and he always had an interesting anecdote to tell.

One evening he had a huge bonfire outside his cabin and let them play with the fire salamanders, while he told them all about the fiery little creatures.

The Easter holidays were fast approaching and as there had been no attacks in almost four months the mood had lightened in school. Once more the sound of laughter and chattering filled the hallways of Hogwarts.

"I feel like we really slacked this year," yawned Fred one evening. The four of them were camped out on the Astronomy Tower with a basket full of food, courtesy of the elves, and steaming butterbeer, courtesy of Lee sneaking to the Three Broomsticks.

"Huh?" Lee looked at him flabbergasted.

"We haven't pulled off as many pranks as in other years," explained George and Fred sat up from where he had been leaning against the wall.

"You're right. We really need to do something big and soon. Best before the holidays," he said clapping his hands together.

Jasmine grinned, the boys were only ever so enthused at the prospect of causing trouble.

"Now everyone put your thinking caps on, it must be epic," instructed George in a dramatic voice and soon ideas were flying about.

"How about something to do with Easter?" suggested Jasmine.

"Like what?" asked Fred skeptically.

"I don't know...like a high-stakes easter egg hunt with exploding eggs or something."

"Yes! We can do loads of different kinds of eggs, some can be filled with dye or itching powder, or stink bomb or glitter," George had started to pace in his excitement.

The ideas kept coming and their plan started to take shape.

"I can borrow Harry's Invisibility Cloak and if we use the Map then hiding them should be easy enough," Jasmine suggested while they were starting to tidy up their leftover food.

"Yes, do. The first thing we'll need to do is organise the eggs."

It took two days of experimentation before they figured out how to source their eggs. It had been decided from the beginning that they would need to transfigure their eggs as their budget was non-existent. With a lot of trial and error on the boy's behalf, sadly the spell was still too advanced for Jasmine, they figured out that transfiguring pebbles worked best. Jasmine was relieved to finally be able to contribute as they waded in the shallows of the great lake with buckets. Nobody thought to disturb them as they were used to their antics and this particular activity seemed harmless enough.

 _Dear Sarah,_

 _And so I write again. I feel like now that I've told you all about Hogwarts, my lessons and my friends I can start on what has been happening at school this year. The year started off normally but then at Halloween we found a message written in red paint on a wall that said_

" _Enemies of the Heir, beware! You'll be next, Mudbloods!"_

 _and Mrs. Norris was hanging on a light sconce by her tail. It was horrible, poor Filch was sobbing because he thought she was dead but it turns out that she was petrified._

 _Dumbledore said that she'll be fine again once she gets a special potion. Anyway, it's all supposed to be linked to an old legend that one of the school founders Salazar Slytherin, built a secret chamber and inside was a hideous monster. The thing is Slytherin didn't want muggle-borns to attend Hogwarts and fought with the other founders and then left. The rumour is that only the true heir of Slytherin can open the chamber again. It was opened the last time 50 years ago and a muggle-born witch was killed by the monster. So far no one has been killed but a boy from my class was petrified and another boy in Harry's year and our Gryffindor ghost Nearly Headless Nick. Thankfully there hasn't been another attack so maybe the attacker got scared._

Jasmine didn't mention the diary or Harry's suspicions about Hagrid as it was too complicated and besides...Sarah was never going to read it anyway.

 _In other news and the real reason why I'm writing this letter is the prank that I'm planning with the boys._

 _As Easter is coming up we've decided to hide loads of exploding eggs all around the school. Not like dangerous explosions - we don't want anyone to get hurt, but eggs with fillings like dye or glitter. Then we'll hide them around the castle with different set timers and have them ticking so people start to look for them._

 _Kind of like mini-timebombs. The thing is… there is a load of complicated magic involved that I can't do yet. I mean I've learned loads since I started here and I'm doing well in all my classes, but Fred, George and Lee are all fourth years they know heaps more than I do and they're all so good at magic. I mean they're experimenting with making up their own potions and spells (mind you, they don't always work) but that's really advanced magic and I feel so useless in comparison. I know that it's not a fair comparison but I want to be able to keep up. Sometimes I have no idea why they're friends with me in the first place. Look at me, I'm positively maudling now._

Jasmine shook her head at herself and continued to write.

 _Before you think that they make me feel bad they don't! They're so patient and usually they just teach me the spells that I don't know yet. It takes a lot of practise but I am improving. Hopefully soon I'll be able to keep up. But back to our prank I can't wait. It's going to be hilarious. I feel so much better getting everything off of my chest. Anyways I'm going to go for dinner now._

 _Missing you so much._

 _Love Jasmine x_

Thankfully the only spell they used the next few days was the transfiguration spell and the boys had taken it in turn to teach Jasmine. While she still only managed to change 1 pebble to a hollow easter egg in the time the boys did fifteen or so, she still felt better. It didn't even matter that her's weren't as perfectly shaped as the others.

They had decided to do 500 eggs and split them up into five different types. There would be green, blue, red, yellow and pink eggs. Then there were six different categories of fillings. 50 eggs would contain a chocolate egg and the other 450 would be split into: glitter, dye potion (blue or pink), laughing potion, a stinking solution and green distributed between the remaining 450 eggs.

Jasmine couldn't even imagine where and how they were going to hide all of these eggs. Once the eggs were filled they'd need to cast tricky timing spells for their explosion. This was proving to be a huge challenge even for the boys and it they were up day and night trying to get it just right.

Jasmine also spent hours wandering around the castle looking for hiding spots and helped to brew the potions they needed for the fillings. This turned out to be easier than expected as they commandeered Myrtle's bathroom again. Myrtle spent most of the time wailing in the last stall as Lee had accidentally walked through her twice on their first day. The twins provisionally cast a silencing charm on the bathroom so no curious bypassers would investigate the source of the wailing.

They were ready to go one week after their plan was hatched.

It was the Thursday before the holidays and the eggs had been filled and waited in cushioned crates in the girls bathroom. They had decided that Fred and Jasmine would do the actual hiding of the eggs while George and Lee would put the timing spells on them.

Only Luna knew of their plan and she wished Jasmine luck as they parted ways after dinner.

"We should go to bed early and get some sleep. We'll be up all night hiding the eggs," yawned Fred and Jasmine looked at him askance.

"Won't that be a dead giveaway if suddenly the three of you go to bed straight after dinner?"

"I can go to bed, she's right you two had better stay up for another while," agreed Lee and the twins groaned.

Jasmine and Lee excused themselves to bed once they got back to the common room and Jasmine was so excited and equally nervous that she was sure she wouldn't be able to fall asleep but she did with the Invisibility Cloak tucked under her pillow.


	22. Chapter 22

She woke with a start when her alarm went off and silenced it before it could wake the other girls. She lay there for a moment but nothing stirred. Silently sitting up she pulled on her Weasley jumper and then put Harry's cloak around herself before sneaking out of the dormitory.

Quiet as a cat she walked down the stairs to the common room where the boys were waiting for her whispering last minute plans.

"Boo," she hissed and lowered the hood on the cloak, dissolving into laughter as they all jumped.

"Merlin Jasmine," grumbled Fred.

"It certainly does the job," said Lee in a dry voice, his hand still clutched to his chest.

"So who is going first?" asked Jasmine.

"I'll bring George," said Fred, "and then I'll get you and then Lee."

Jasmine pursed her lips but didn't argue again. She had initially insisted that she should be the one to bring them back and forth since she was smaller and easier to fit under the cloak but the boys refused to let her wander alone through the castle.

Lee and Jasmine went through their entire plan again as they waited for Fred to return which he did a lot quicker than they expected.

"We didn't run into anyone," he explained and consulted the map before he lead the way out of the portrait hole.

Once he was outside he lifted the cloak for Jasmine to slip in and they set off to the girl's bathroom which was serving as their base.

George was already busy placing the timing spells on the eggs when they reached the bathroom and Fred immediately left again. Jasmine gently placed the spelled eggs in her book bag. By the time the others arrived Jasmine had filled her bag and was already filling Fred's.

"Are you ready?" he asked her and she nodded grinning.

"Let's hide some eggs," she said and handed him one of the bags, slinging the other over her shoulder.

They headed straight for the dungeons having planned exactly where and in what order they would go, to minimise the need for conversation between them. They didn't venture very far into the dungeons but did hide a few eggs around the Slytherin entrance and Snape's office. They had discussed at length whether they should try the Potions classroom but had deemed it too risky in case Snape had warded the door.

Next they hit the Entrance Hall and Great Hall which was difficult to do with the teachers and prefects patrolling, who were using it as a central point where they met up to start their rounds and report back.

Jasmine was sweating and she could tell that Fred was just as hot by the sweaty and clammy arm that brushed against her own every so often. It was a lot harder moving together under the invisibility cloak than she had expected. Their height difference added another risk as the cloak was prone to slipping and the last thing they needed was to have one of the teachers noticing a pair of discombobulated feet.

They took turns lighting their wands and reading the map, while the other person stuck their hands out of the cover of invisibility to stash the eggs anywhere they could.

Jasmine poked Fred when the bag empty and gestured that they should get a refill. Fred held up his finger motioning for her to wait and after a minute she heard Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape coming to a halt in the doorway talking quietly.

Not daring to move Jasmine thought her heart was going to beat out of her chest she was sure that Fred could hear it.

When they finally moved on Jasmine heaved a big sigh.

"I thought they'd never move," murmured Fred and motioned for her to walk. They made it to the bathroom where George and Lee were waiting worriedly.

"Thank Morgana, we were worried you'd been caught, you've been gone for so long," said George and they refilled their bags.

It was taking them a lot longer than they had initially planned and Jasmine was worried that they wouldn't get them all hidden by morning. She could feel the tension rolling off Fred in waves but they were powerless and could do nothing but wait until the teachers or prefects walked past.

The birds were chirping and tweeting their morning song when Jasmine and Fred sweaty and wobbly returned to the girl's bathroom where George and Lee were spread out on their cloaks half asleep.

"Done, it's finally done," said Jasmine sliding down against the wall to join George on his cloak.

"We'll go back in the same order," decided Fred and the others were too tired to even think of arguing.

"Well done, I don't think we've ever pulled off something this elaborate," said Lee as they fell into the plush armchairs in Gryffindor Tower.

"Don't say that yet, we won't know till tomorrow if the eggs will actually work," yawned George.

"I'm going to fall asleep in class," said Jasmine mournfully and eyed the staircase which seemed like an insurmountable obstacle.

"Maybe I'll just sleep here," she muttered but she did eventually drag herself up to her dorm.

The following morning was a special form of hell. Jasmine felt so tired she barely felt able to walk in a straight line and stumbled over her own feet as she got dressed.

"Good start," she mumbled. The three boys didn't look much better.

"This isn't good, we need to look more awake or else everyone will know that we did it," said Fred but he didn't look much more alive than the others.

"Next time we should definitely brew some Pepper-Up Potions," said Lee.

"That doesn't help us now," replied Jasmine, leaning heavily against George who put an arm around her to steady her.

"Cold water and fresh air," suggested Fred and they returned to the girl's bathroom on the way downstairs where they ripped open the windows and splashed cold water on their faces while Myrtle watched them in suspicion.

They looked slightly more fresh-faced when they appeared in the Great Hall ten minutes later and Jasmine left the group to sit with Luna.

"Well?" whispered Luna.

"I wouldn't advise you to touch any of them," said Jasmine, grinning at her slyly, "the odds that you'll get a chocolate one are slim to none."

"Duly noted," said Luna with a sparkle in her eyes.

The fun started during their first lesson when a quiet ticking began. Jasmine who had Defence Against the Dark Arts had been listening for it and she nudged Luna as soon as she heard it. Luna grinned and the ticking grew louder slowly and soon the others could hear it as well.

"What is that ticking?" Lockhart asked standing up from his desk and turning around on the spot. Jasmine and Luna had to stifle their giggles when he started to search his desk, the ticking growing ever louder.

"What in Merlin's beard is this?" Lockhart straightened up and held up the egg Jasmine had hidden in his desk drawer.

She hardly dared to breathe as he examined the egg holding it close to his face.

"Ahhh!" He let out a high-pitched scream when the egg exploded with a quiet pop and he was sprayed with a repulsive smelling liquid.

The class was silent for a moment before bursting into laughter while Lockhart was frantically wiping his face, hair and robes.

Some people in the front row were gagging through their laughter at the smell.

"Class dismissed," shouted Lockhart desperately before rushing out into the corridor.

"Brilliant," cried Luna, wiping tears of laughter out of her eyes.

"There's that ticking noise again," Romilda Vane, a fellow Gryffindor said when the noise died down a bit.

Suddenly everyone was out of their seat searching for the source. It was Colin Creevey who found it at last and it was ticking alarmingly loud.

"Look Jasmine, I got it," he thrust it under her nose.

She didn't have time to react before it exploded covering both of them in pink glitter.

"Colin, why did you pick it up?" she whined, although she mused, it was a good way to direct the blame elsewhere.

"Wicked," breathed Colin in the same breath and shrugged, "at least we don't smell."

"Yeah, but you didn't know that," she huffed but then had to laugh as well.

By lunchtime the school was buzzing with the easter egg hunt in full swing.

Fred and George hadn't come away unscathed either. Fred had been unlucky to be near enough to be splashed by the stinking solution and George's face, hair and most of his robes were dyed blue.

"You look like a smurf," Jasmine had greeted him before pushing away Fred, "ugh you stink."

"We're not talking to Lee," informed George pretending not to see Lee who had joined them at the table.

"Why?" asked Jasmine absently.

She gasped when she saw Dumbledore with his beard covered in purple glitter and gulped.

"Earth to Jasmine," said George impatiently.

"Huh?"

"Lee, ended up getting a chocolate egg, the lucky bugger," said Fred and Jasmine glared at him.

"Seriously?"

"What can I say?" he shrugged and smirked at them all.

"Did you see Dumbledore?" Jasmine asked them furtively.

She didn't dare to look up at the teacher's table again in fear of seeing Snape dyed green or McGonagall laughing uncontrollably.

All three of them spun around in their seats and she face-palmed, "not all at once."

They all looked rather sober when they turned back.

"He doesn't look too angry," George offered and Jasmine glanced over her shoulder, it was true Dumbledore was smiling merrily and he kept stroking his beard while he chatted with Professor McGonagall. She caught Luna's eye at the Ravenclaw table, who winked at her and Jasmine waggled her eyebrows.

Harry and Hermione appeared at the table without Ron.

"We couldn't bring him in, he was howling with laughter," explained Harry who so far hadn't been hit by anything.

Hermione hadn't been so lucky covered partly in glitter and partly in dye.

"I'll never get this out my hair," she moaned and tried to brush through her wild mane with her fingers.

Snape had not even thought about touching one of those blasted eggs and there hadn't been any in his classroom, clearly the troublemakers knew better. Dumbledore thought it was great fun and Snape could tell that the old coot was delighted with his sparkling purple beard.

"It's only some fun, Severus," he said and when Professor McGonagall snorted he turned to her.

"Minerva, it's not hurting anyone. I think whoever pulled this off was actually quite clever. It must have taken a lot of work and preparation."

"I don't think we need to wonder who did this," sneered Snape, "it reeks of a certain three Gryffindors, or should I say four."

His gaze hung on Fred, George, Jasmine and Lee who were sitting huddled together, although it seemed that the other three kept on pushing one of the twins away.

"Innocent until proven guilty, Severus," replied Dumbledore serenely.

"There's no proof that it was any of my Gryffindors, it could just as well have been a Slytherin student."

Snape scoffed and didn't dignify to respond to that because his students weren't angels by any means but when they caused trouble it was less ridiculous.

"So you're just going to let them get away with this?"

"We have no proof that there was any wrongdoing by anyone," responded Dumbledore calmly but there was a finality in his tone. Privately he thought it was a good thing that the students were finally thinking about something other than the monster in the Chamber of Secrets, for the first time in months laughter filled the castle all morning.

The day continued in the same cheerful manner, students celebrated every egg found and envied the lucky few who found a chocolate egg. Fred, George, Lee and Jasmine all fell into bed with huge smiles on their faces, George's looking abnormally white in his blue face, knowing that their plans had gone off without a hitch and that it was finally the Easter Holidays.

"I have absolutely no idea what to choose," said Harry rubbing his eyes tiredly. He had just come back from an early morning training session and joined Jasmine in the common room.

Jasmine took the list of subjects and their descriptions and read through it.

"I don't know. Fred and George do Care of Magical Creatures, which I definitely want to do when I can, and Muggle Studies, which I don't think is useful for either of us. Then Lee also does Ancient Runes which he finds really interesting. And that's all the advice I can give you," she grinned at him and he dropped his head into his arms.

"How are muggle-borns supposed to have any idea?

They can't even ask their families?" he groaned, "Dean Thomas closed his eyes and chose three by pointing his wand at the sheet."

Jasmine giggled and suggested that Harry do the same.

"Percy recommended I take Divination, that's where you learn to tell the future," said Harry, pointing to it on the list. Jasmine read the summary and scrunched up her nose, "I don't know it looks kind of vague to me." She shrugged and handed back the list.

"What are Ron and Hermione doing?"

"Hermione wants to take them all," said Harry, rolling his eyes fondly, "and Ron thinks he'll do Divination and Care of Magical Creatures. Arithmancy sounds really hard."

"Hmm, I don't know. I'm sure whatever you'll pick will be fine," said Jasmine and then asked how training had gone.

The topic of subject choices remained throughout the holidays.

"Why did you only choose two subjects?" asked Jasmine one afternoon when they were all lounging on a big blanket by the lake.

"Well because we know exactly what we want to do so we didn't see the point in taking on any extra work," shrugged Fred and George nodded.

"We'd rather spend our time doing something useful than studying subjects we'll never need again. At least Magical Creatures and Muggle Studies have some practical aspects. Merlin, I could never imagine studying Divination," said George.

"Yeah, the actual definition of pointless," agreed Fred.

"So what do you want to do?" asked Jasmine curiously, she had always envied people who knew exactly where their life was going. She, herself, had no real idea what she wanted to do in the future.

"We're going to open a joke shop," said George with absolute certainty.

"Yeah, I can see that," said Jasmine and the boys grinned at her.

"That's why we spend so much time experimenting with spells and potions, not just for the pranks we pull at school. Let's call it product development and market research at the early stages," added Fred.

Jasmine couldn't help but be impressed by their planning and drive.

"Well, I'll be happy to join you," she said.

"A fellow marauder will always have a place with us."

Jasmine rather liked the sound of that and she assured them that she would definitely help with the shop if they wanted her too. And so the four of them planned their future on the lush green grass on the grounds of Hogwarts.

Poor Neville was getting countless cards and letters from all of his relatives telling him what to do.

He kept rereading them and asking anyone who would listen what subjects he should do.

In the end he decided to do Divination, Muggle Studies and Care of Magical Creatures.

Jasmine was incredibly touched when he told her he had chosen Muggle Studies so he could understand the world she came from better.

She spent most of her holidays with Lee, Neville and Luna since the twins had Quidditch training every day, sometimes even twice a day. When they got to the tower in the evening they would fall into the armchairs completely exhausted.


	23. Chapter 23

Term started again and they fell back into their regular rhythm of classes, homework and for the Quidditch team regular training times.

It was the evening before the match against Hufflepuff and the boys were at training while Jasmine and Lee sat on one of the sofas in front of the fire lazily passing a bag of crisps back and forth and chatting about joke products on the Muggle market that perhaps could be adapted to the wizarding market. Ever since their conversation on the Astronomy Tower they could talk of little else.

"Making people laugh has to be the greatest job ever," sighed Lee and Jasmine could not agree more. She was roused by the sight of Neville flying down the stairs from the boy's dormitory, his eyes opened wide, a light sheen of sweat on his face.

"Neville are you alright," she jumped up and rushed over to him. Lee looking over the back of the sofa in undisguised curiosity.

"You need to come and see this," he muttered quietly and dragged Jasmine upstairs. Lee followed them at a sedate pace but stopped dead when he saw the two of them standing in the second year boy's dormitory which was totally destroyed.

"Holy fuck, what happened here?" asked Lee but neither of them had an answer.

"It looks like somebody was searching for something?" he added.

"The real question is whether they found it," said Jasmine darkly, "and the worst thing it must have been one of us. Only a Gryffindor could have done this."

The three of them fell silent all wondering the same thing. Who could have done this?

"We should leave this for Harry and see if he can see what's missing," said Jasmine eventually and the three of them went down to the common room and waited tense and anxious. Jasmine couldn't help but look around at the other Gryffindors wondering under who's innocent mask the real culprit lay.

"Riddle's diary is gone," muttered Harry under his breath to Ron and Jasmine, "C'mon."

They followed him down to Hermione and they huddled together trying to figure out what to do next. While Jasmine was unnerved by the break in she couldn't help but be relieved that Harry was no longer in possession of the diary.

"C'mon Harry we'll help you straighten up your room," said Hermione and they trooped back up the stairs and found that Neville, Dean and Seamus had already started to put Harry's belongings in piles.

"Sorry, but we can't save those," Seamus pointed to a pile of ripped books.

Harry took a step closer to inspect the pile of torn and shredded paper to see that it was only two of Lockhart's books.

"That's alright, I can share with Ron," he said and then thanked them for their help.

"I think I need an early night," said Jasmine once the dorm was back to normal.

She squeezed Harry's arm and then bade the others goodnight too.

Jasmine and Lee ate their breakfast with the Quidditch team the following morning and amid the mountains of sausages, bacon and fried tomatoes Jasmine didn't miss the shy glances between Fred and Angelina.

For some reason it twisted her stomach into an uncomfortable knot and there was a light pressure in her rib cage.

Feeling suddenly uncomfortable she nudged his foot under the table and with her eyes squinted in Angelina's direction then back at Fred and waggled her eyebrows and he lightly kicked her but he was laughing and there was a blush rising up his neck slowly until it reached his fiery red hair.

"Uhh," he laughed awkwardly and Jasmine couldn't help the soft chuckle in response. The earlier feeling in her stomach and chest easing.

Harry barely ate anything and he looked tired.

"Are you coming down to the pitch?" she asked him but he shook his head.

"No I have to go collect my broom."

"We'll go with you," said Hermione loyally and so the three of them disappeared.

Jasmine and Lee escorted the twins to the changing rooms, wished them luck and then went to climb up the many steps to their seats. Lee as commentator had one of the best spaces reserved for him and he had made sure there would be a seat saved for Jasmine next to him.

They were far too early and watched as the school slowly trickled out of the the great front doors down the grass and towards the pitch.

Too their surprise and worry they watched Professor McGonagall stride across the lawn just as the teams were about to warm up.

As she held up her megaphone Jasmine knew with a sinking feeling that something bad had happened.

"C'mon, and stay close," ordered Lee once McGonagall had made her announcement. Jasmine could only see Harry and Ron following McGonagall before Lee had grabbed her hand and pulled her after him to the steps. The twins caught up with them just outside the doors still in their Quidditch robes and their brooms over the shoulders. Wood was walking behind them giving out loudly about the match being cancelled. They lost him in the mass of people but found a stricken Percy.

"What's going on Perce?" asked Fred.

"There's been another attack," he said, his voice shaking.

"A double attack. Hermione…" they gasped and Jasmine's hand flew to her mouth.

"And Penny… I mean Penelope Clearwater. She was…" he choked on his words and drew a shaking hand through his hair, "a Prefect."

They sat and listened to Professor McGonagall who seemed to be having trouble speaking.

"We're not leaving Jasmine out of our sight from now on," said George as they were lying in bed that night, "she's the only Muggle-born left in our group now."

"It shouldn't be too difficult as it looks like we won't be left alone for even a second. I wonder what makes the common rooms so safe that we can be here without supervision," yawned Fred, the other two didn't respond as they had fallen asleep after a long day.

"Shh, come on," Harry whispered to Ron as they set off to visit Hagrid.

Harry had told Ron not to mention a word to Jasmine or else she would want to come and Harry was very much of the same opinion as the twins and Lee. In fact he would prefer if he could send Jasmine home to the Dursley's until the monster was caught and killed.

"Did you hear about Hagrid? And that Dumbledore's gone?" asked Jasmine the moment Harry and Ron sat down at the table.

"Yes," said Harry grimly and kicked Ron under the table when he started to speak.

He pointedly looked at him before understanding flickered in his eyes.

The new restrictions were terrible in Jasmine's opinion because now she couldn't spend any time with Luna outside of mealtimes and classes and it was rather difficult to have conversations in class. Especially in Potions where Snape put an end to their discussion about Hagrid very quickly and threatened that they could clean the bedpans in the hospital wing if they didn't stop.

"We should write him a letter," hissed Luna under her breath and then looked innocently back at Snape when he spun around.

"5 points from Ravenclaw Miss Lovegood." He continued on his path to berate more terrified looking students.

"Would he even get it," Jasmine murmured so quietly that Luna barely heard her.

"We have to at least try."

"We'll do it at dinner this evening," she said.

 _Dear Hagrid,_

 _We're so sorry to hear that you've been taken to Azkaban. It's awful that you got the blame for something that you didn't do. We believe that you are innocent. We're not able to go out and visit Fang because of the new safety precautions but we did manage to sneak into the kitchens and ask one of the elves to make sure to feed him and let him out so don't worry Fang is being looked after very well. It's horrible at school without Dumbledore, everyone, even the teachers are really scared. We have to be in our common rooms every evening by 6pm which is why we are writing this letter at dinner. We'll get Hedwig to deliver it tomorrow._

 _Keep your head up Hagrid, hopefully the true culprit will be found and you can come home._

 _Love_

 _Jasmine and Luna_

"I'll ask Harry if we can borrow Hedwig later," said Jasmine and Luna nodded.

The cloying atmosphere of the common room caused Jasmine to go to bed earlier than usual to reread the book Sarah had given her for Christmas but she couldn't focus on the words. Her gaze wandered to the photograph on her nightstand.

"Mum...I'm really scared. I wish you were here," she murmured and then shook herself.

Taking out her refill pad and pen she started to write.

 _Dearest Sarah,_

 _You cannot imagine how much I'm missing you right now. Things are horrendous here right now. You know those attacks that I told you about? Well now two more people have been petrified and worst of all the Minister for Magic arrested Hagrid and sent him to wizard's prison even though he's innocent. And Professor Dumbledore had to leave because the school governors decided he wasn't fit for the job but now everyone is scared witless. We're not allowed to go anywhere in the castle by ourselves now. The teachers bring us to every class we even need a teacher to escort us to the loo. We also have to be in our common rooms by 6pm every evening which means that I barely get to see Luna anymore and although they think that I don't notice I know that Fred, George, Lee and Harry are all really worried about me. The first hint was when Fred pretended that he had left his book in my dorm and then crawled underneath all the beds before I went to sleep last week. Do they think I'm dim? Anyways since I'm pretty scared and I know they only want the best for me I haven't said anything. I'm just rereading "Devil Pond's Descent" and I just want to say thank you so much. It's so so good. I can't wait to see what happens next._

 _Right, I'm going to actually read some more and then get some sleep._

 _Missing you so much._

 _Love Jasmine x_


	24. Chapter 24

The somber mood of the castle never lifted and the days seemed endlessly long to Jasmine. It was the same day in and day out. Breakfast, then classes, then lunch, then more lessons and finally dinner before they were herded back to their respective common rooms.

She noticed that whenever she was walking with Harry and Ron they were craning their necks, looking off in every direction.

"What are you looking for?" she asked one day after dinner.

"Nothing," said Harry and turned to Ron, "I almost forgot to ask but can I borrow your "Gadding with Ghouls" for homework tonight?"

Ron nodded way to eagerly for a book and Jasmine narrowed her eyes at Harry.

"I know you're hiding something from me and I will find out about it."

Lockhart's good cheer was driving everyone insane and Fred had to physically stop George from hexing him when he went on and on about Hagrid being a criminal and better off in Azkaban.

Harry sat in an armchair watching the twins, Lee, Jasmine and Ron having a raucous game of exploding snap, in fact a crowd had gathered to watch them. Dumbledore's words kept on replaying in his mind over and over again but he didn't know what to make of them. Ron had simply shrugged his shoulders when Harry brought it up, "that's Dumbledore for you, mate."

He wished he had Hermione or Jasmine to discuss this however the former was petrified and the latter wasn't to know that he had been in Hagrid's cabin.

Harry had snuck out one more time to find that Fang had a big bowl of food and the fire had been lit for him.

He had confronted Jasmine about it and she had admitted to having asked a Hogwarts elf to look after Fang. Harry was relieved that he wouldn't have to sneak out every evening after all.

A few evenings later Harry was sitting on his invisibility cloak silently willing everyone to go to bed. It was past midnight when Jasmine finally slipped into her bed and quickly dropped off to sleep totally oblivious to the adventure Harry and Ron were having.

The fight that ensued when Harry told Jasmine about his nighttime adventure caused several raised eyebrows before Jasmine pulled Harry up to her dormitory which was empty.

"I can't believe it. You almost died again," she raged, "how could you keep this from me. We tell each other everything."

"Because I knew that if I told you, you'd have tried to sneak out after us," yelled Harry.

"Well if you'd just let me come in the first place," shouted Jasmine.

Their argument turned in circles and was only interrupted when an apologetic Romilda stuck her head around the door saying that she needed to get her books or else she'd be late.

Jasmine swung from anger to hurt to fear all day, the thought of how easily she could have lost Harry, to indignation that he hadn't told her and the hurt that leaked through at the fact that he had kept secrets from her.

In the evening Harry approached her warily in the common room but she pretended not to see him and firmly kept her gaze locked on her book. The twins wisely kept their mouths shut and only shrugged at him when he looked at them pleadingly.

The following morning Jasmine had softened slightly and even managed a stiff nod to Harry at breakfast where he heaved a big sigh. He knew that the worst was now over.

"I'm sorry Jasmine, I promise I won't keep anything from you anymore," he promised her. They were back in her dormitory where he had found her writing a letter to Sarah. No doubt complaining about him.

"Thank you. And I promise not to wander off by myself while the Chamber is still open."

"Thank you."

They looked at each other and then burst into laughter.

"I swear Harry I wanted to hit you with my book," giggled Jasmine and Harry elbowed her.

A new hush had fallen over the common room as everyone was way behind on studying.

"I still can't believe that they're making us take exams. I mean…" Ron trailed off looking despairingly at his wand. "Hermione is going to have a fit."

Jasmine who felt quite confident in all of her subjects spent the remainder of the week helping Neville to study because he was in a near constant state of panic.

"I need to improve my grades, my uncle was disappointed with my grades last year," he confided in Jasmine, chewing on his bottom lip.

Three days before the exams were to start Professor McGonagall made an announcement which cheered everyone up. The news that their petrified school mates would be revived that evening was a cause for celebration.

Jasmine went to class feeling hopeful for the first time in weeks.

"This is great news, isn't it?" she said to Ginny whose face was pinched and pale.

"It is," she agreed.

"Are you alright? You look very pale?"

"I'm fine," said Ginny and then moved to sit next to Colin Creevey.

Jasmine went to her seat and greeted Luna. DADA was spent with revision for their exam but Luna and Jasmine had more important things to discuss, much to Lockhart's consternation.

Jasmine had suggested to Harry that she should try to divert one of their teachers to Myrtle's bathroom but Harry had wisely pointed out that she couldn't ask Myrtle any questions while the teacher was there.

It was upon arrival to transfiguration that Jasmine noticed that Ginny wasn't there.

"Colin, do you know where Ginny is?" she asked sticking her head out the door, the only thing she saw was Lockhart's lilac robes sweeping around the corner out of sight.

"No, but...she was just there," Colin said looking around as if Ginny would suddenly appear out of thin air.

"She wasn't looking too well, maybe she ran to the bathroom," said Jasmine and was just about to slip out of the classroom when Professor McGonagall appeared at the end of the hallway.

"Miss Dursley, where do you think you're going?" she barked sharply.

"I was going to look for Ginny Professor McGonagall. She was with us in DADA but now she isn't here. She was looking very pale and I thought maybe she went to the bathroom to be sick."

Professor McGonagall's face grew pinched.

"You will all stay in this classroom, so help me Merlin if any of you take one step outside you'll have detention till your seventh year. I will search for Miss Weasley."

The first year students all sat in their seats with every passing minute growing more worried.

When the announcement was made that all students should return to their common rooms immediately panic broke out in the classroom. They split off at the end of the corridor moving in two tightly knit groups.

"Take care," called Luna.

"You too," called Jasmine waving.

They were intercepted by Percy Weasley who was visibly shaking.

"Follow me to the tower please," he said tersely.

Jasmine pushed her way to the front, "Percy, where's Ginny? What's happened?"

"She's been taken into the chamber," Percy broke of trying to compose himself.

"Now follow me," he ordered and they fell into line wordlessly.

Jasmine felt sick and she was dreading having to face Fred and George. She felt as though she was partly responsible for Ginny disappearing after all they had been in the same class.

The twins were inconsolable and while they didn't blame Jasmine in the least they blamed themselves for not taking good care of their little sister. The four of them sat subdued in the common room and were only joined by Harry and Ron the other students giving them a wide berth.

In the end the twins went up to bed as the sun was setting. Lee motioned to Jasmine that he'd follow them.

Only then did Harry tell Jasmine what they had found out in the hospital wing and he showed her the crumpled piece of paper, then he told her about the conversation being overheard in the staff room.

"Maybe we should tell Lockhart about the Basilisk," said Ron eventually and neither Harry nor Jasmine had the heart to tell him that Lockhart probably wouldn't do anything about it. No one tried to stop them as they left the common room.

The halls were eerily quiet devoid of any teachers or ghosts. The closer they got to Lockhart's office the more they could the ruckus inside. There were loud thumps and scraping on the floor and heavy panting.

Harry knocked and the door swung open revealing Lockhart and two trunks which were half-filled.


	25. Chapter 25

Jasmine watched the back and forth between Harry and Lockhart in disgust. She hadn't thought much of Lockhart before but now she loathed him. He was a fraud of the worst kind.

She was also seeing Harry from a new side. That steely determination and command was not a side she had ever seen before.

In the time Harry disarmed Lockhart she was still fumbling for her wand and she realised that Harry worked very well under pressure.

She followed them to Myrtle's bathroom keeping her wand trained on Lockhart. She may not be as quick as Harry but she was less trusting. Now that Lockhart had been disarmed Harry seemed to think that he was harmless.

"Jasmine you can't go down there," Harry pleaded after Ron had pushed Lockhart down the chute and they were standing around the hole looking into the gaping blackness.

"Try to stop me," she replied and before he could move she let herself drop down hoping with everything for a soft landing.

She could hear the other two coming after her and when she reached the bottom she leapt to her feet so that they wouldn't land on top of her

She and Harry lit up their wands but that didn't make the dark tunnel any more welcoming. With every step they took Jasmine expected the basilisk to come out at them. Her eyes involuntarily flinched shut at every flicker of a shadow against the wall, she actually jumped when Ron stepped on the rat's skull, her heart hammering so hard in her chest she felt light-headed. They froze when Ron pointed at a dark shape ahead of them in the tunnel, squeezing their eyes tightly shut not making a sound.

"It's only the skin," said Harry and Jasmine opened her eyes just in time to see Lockhart sinking to his knees. Before she could act he had grabbed Ron's wand and was pointing it at them. She was still trying to think of a way to disarm him when he shouted "OBLIVIATE" and the tunnel flared up once, blinding, bright, white light, before going completely dark. Jasmine felt herself move, she flung her hands protectively over her head as she felt the ceiling collapse, blindly running.

A blood curdling scream stopped Jasmine in her tracks and it took a few seconds to realise that it was coming out of her own mouth.

There was a searing pain in her foot which, shot in short bursts up her right leg, it felt like everything she had ever dropped on her feet and every stubbed toe multiplied by a million. She tried to move her foot but her breathing got quicker and more laboured when she couldn't. Trembling she managed to light up her wand and what she saw made bile rise up her throat.

"JASMINE, RON are you alright?" She was distantly aware that Harry was shouting somewhere and that that meant that he was alive.

"I'm fine," called back Ron, he rushed over to Jasmine guided by the light.

"SHIT," he said when he spotted the large boulder crushing Jasmine's right foot.

"What is it?" shouted Harry panicked.

"Jasmine's hurt her foot," Ron called taking the wand out of Jasmine's hand and lifting it up so he could see her properly.

"And her head!"

Jasmine blinked dazedly at Ron, did he say she had hurt her head? She raised her hand and touched her face, hissing in pain when she touched a cut on her forehead. She gingerly felt around the rest of her head and was glad to find no other injuries.

"Is she conscious?" Harry's voice had a panicked edge.

"I'm fine," Jasmine tried to call out but her voice got stuck in her throat.

"She'll be fine Harry, what will we do? It'll take ages to clear away all these rocks," called Ron desperately.

"You stay there and look after Jasmine and I'll find Ginny."

Jasmine wanted to shout at him and tell him to stay with her and to be careful but she knew that he had to go on. Ginny was in trouble and she fiercely believed that if anyone could save her now it was Harry.

"Stay safe," she called and was pleased that this time she managed to get the words out.

"You too, I'll be back soon. But if I'm not back in an hour…" he trailed off and Jasmine's head grew clearer.

"Don't you dare die, Harry," she screamed and heard him laugh on the other side.

"I'll do my best Jaz," he called softly, tears rising to her eyes at his childhood name for her.

She strained her ears to hear if he had walked away but it was impossible to tell.

"Where's Lockhart?" she asked suddenly.

"He's sitting over there...the wand..uhm...well it blasted him so his memory is completely gone," said Ron sheepishly.

"He has no idea who he is or what he does."

"Oh dear," said Jasmine but that was the extent of pity she could feel for her former teacher at the present moment.

"Your head's stopped bleeding, I'll take it as a good sign," said Ron after he had inspected her again. I reckon I can levitate the rock off your foot and then put you sitting on that rock over there where you can lean against the wall. Does that sound alright?"

"Sure," said Jasmine uncertainly but it wasn't like she had a better plan.

He pointed her wand at the rock and said, "wingardium leviosa."

The rock lifted and Jasmine felt the world sink up around her.

"Jasmine, Jasmine," she heard her name being called at first from a great distance and then closer and closer and then she felt someone tapping her cheeks.

"Jasmine wake up, are you alright?"

"Huh?"

"Oh thank Merlin. Harry will actually kill me if anything happens to you," muttered Ron, "alright, c'mon let's get you off the wet ground."

He lifted an arm around her and together they managed to move her, she bit her lip so hard to stem the pain that she tasted blood.

The next hour was endless, Jasmine sat and watched Ron clear away rocks and listened with half an ear to Lockhart's babbling. The pain in her foot had turned into a dull throb and now she could only think about Harry and whether he would get back safe and if Ginny was still alive.

After she had ensured that blood-drenched Harry was very much alive and healthy she hugged him tightly and refused to let go.

"We need to get out of here," Harry whispered in her hair.

"Ok," she said but the events after that took on a dreamlike quality. The next thing she remembered is entering McGonagall's office where Dumbledore, Snape and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were all staring at them dumbfounded.

"Severus, please take Miss Dursley to the hospital wing, immediately," said Dumbledore.

"Yes Headmaster," said Snape and Jasmine protested feebly that she was fine and she wanted to hear what Harry had to say.

"Absolutely not, you're most likely concussed," snapped Snape.

He conjured a stretcher out of thin air and she collapsed in a heap on it groaning in relief at being off her feet.

Snape was silent as he floated the stretcher alongside him all the way up to the hospital wing which was now empty as all the students had been revived.

"Poppy," he called sharply and the matron bustled over to them.

"Oh Miss Dursley, you poor dear, what did you do this time?" She shook her head as she transferred Jasmine to a hospital bed.

"Rocks," sighed Jasmine tiredly, her eyes felt so heavy.

"Stay awake," she barked and then started to run diagnostic checks on her while Jasmine struggled to follow her orders.

"So what happened?" asked Snape and her eyes snapped to his face. He had moved slightly closer and now lifted an eyebrow.

"We...we went to Lockhart…" she stopped because she was able to hear her slurring words, "to tell him about the basilisk, but he, he was...OUCH," she exclaimed when Madam Pomfrey cleaned her wound.

"He was packing his trunk." Snape scoffed and Madam Pomfrey tutted.

"Anyways, he told us that none of his books are real and that he was going to wipe our memories but Harry disarmed him...with that spell you taught us."

She had to interrupt her story to take a potion and her head felt crystal clear again.

"Wooow, what was that?" she asked distractedly.

"A healing potion specifically for head injuries," said Madam Pomfrey, moving towards the foot of the bed, "continue your story, maybe now you'll be able to speak properly."

"So then we went to Myrtle's bathroom because we had figured out that's where the entrance is, and Harry opened it using parseltongue. One of the sinks opened and there was this black hole. We made Lockhart go down first and then we followed." Jasmine hurried to speak again because Snape was looking thunderous, "there was just a long dark tunnel. At some point Lockhart jumped at Ron and grabbed his wand and tried to wipe our memories again but the wand backfired and there was an explosion and the roof caved in."

Jasmine yawned widely, "Harry was on the other side and went on to find Ginny. Ron helped me move the boulder of my foot and then sat me on a rock and then we waited."

She yawned again and felt her eyes grow heavier.

"Why isn't my foot hurting anymore?" she asked.

"I put a numbing charm on it before I started to work on it," Madam Pomfrey told her with a small smile.

"Hmm, s'nice." Jasmine let her head sink into the pillows and since no one told her otherwise let her eyes slide shut.

"Why m'I so tired?" she slurred again.

"It's a common side effect of the potion," came the silky baritone response.

Huh, Snape was still there for some reason she thought and then slipped into a deep and blissful sleep.

Jasmine slept through Ginny and Mr and Mrs. Weasley coming in, Lockhart and Ron and then finally all the other Weasleys who had rushed in to see Ginny.

There were a lot of tears and hugs and by the end Ginny was laughing through her tears, propped up in a mound of pillows with a mug of hot chocolate clutched to her chest.

"I do hope dear Jasmine is alright," said Mrs. Weasley once they were all seated around the bed.

"Jasmine's here? Is she alright?" Fred and George jumped to their feet looking around wildly.

"She's behind that curtain," replied Mr. Weasley, "boys, I don't think you should…"

It was too late, the boys had already pulled back the curtains and given twin gasps.

"Mr. and Mr. Weasley what are you two doing?"

They spun around to face Madam Pomfrey who was looking murderous at one of her charges being interrupted.

"Is she ok?" asked Fred.

"She will be fine, she needs plenty of rest." She ushered them out and pulled the curtain back into place but the sight of Jasmine didn't leave Fred or George.

Her face pale and her right foot elevated on two pillows.

"What happened to her?" George asked Ginny as they got back to Ginny.

"She crushed her foot under a rock, and got hit on the head as well," said Ginny shakily looking over at the curtains. Ron told Percy and the twins the whole story. When he had finished Madam Pomfrey came over to tell them that they should go down to the feast. They said goodbye to their parents and Ginny and went to join the other students. An hour later the Weasleys bade Ginny goodnight and left as well leaving Ginny lying tucked up feeling impossibly warm and loved.

Jasmine woke up feeling rested and pain free the next morning and she had a nice breakfast chatting across the ward with Ginny.

"Where do you think you're going?" asked Madam Pomfrey as Jasmine swung her legs over the side of the bed.

"I was leaving?"

"You're not leaving until I say you can," said Madam Pomfrey sternly, but there was a smile on her face.

"But I'm all better, see?" Jasmine flexed her foot and Madam Pomfrey pulled the blanket back over her.

"You can leave this evening," she told Jasmine who groaned and dropped back on her pillows with a pout.

Luckily she didn't have a lot of time to sulk because Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George and Lee all came to visit after breakfast and Jasmine heard the whole story for the first time. Then Mr. and Mrs. Weasley came in and she immediately liked them. Mr. Weasley brought Honeydukes sweets for everyone and Mrs. Weasley fussed and plumped up her pillows and pulled the blankets into place.

"You really must come and visit us this Summer with Harry, dear," she said.

"I would love to, thank you Mrs. Weasley," said Jasmine.

The rest of term was spent outside enjoying the sunshine, running around the castle and they went to Hogsmeade again.

Too soon it was the holidays and they all boarded the Hogwarts express. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, the twins, Lee and Jasmine shared a compartment, played exploding snap, practised disarming each other and set off the last of the Filibuster fireworks.

"You definitely have to come and visit this Summer," said George as he hugged Jasmine just in front of the barrier to the Muggle world.

"Don't go on anymore adventures without us," laughed Lee joining in on the hug.

"Yeah take care Jasmine," said Fred also hugging her, "we'll find a way to keep in touch." He winked at her and together they stepped through the barrier.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A/N: Well this is it guys. Thanks to all of you who came along for the ride. Drop me a comment if you're excited for Part 3 which is currently in the works and I'm hoping to finish it during Nanowrimo next month so hopefully should be able to start posting in December. :)


End file.
